Occupy Wall St.: This Is Not a Head Scratcher

From the Huffington Post - by Jared Bernstein, Senior Fellow, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities - Last night I heard a story on NPR about the Wall St. protest that is now spreading to other cities. The gist of the story was: "what are these protests really about? What do they want?" I'm sorry, but that's just not a head scratcher. Do these news analysts think it's a coincidence that they're occupying Wall St. as opposed to Columbus Ave north of 79th? As Andrew Sorkin put it today (after writing that the message was "at times...hard to discern"): ... the demonstrators are seeking accountability for Wall Street and corporate America for the financial crisis and the growing economic inequality gap. I'm not saying everyone down there is ready to give a clear exposition of the facts of the case, but commentators can stop scratching their heads now. I've been writing about these problems for decades. Sometimes they've gotten a little better, but mostly they've gotten worse. Before the downturn, the share of income held by the top 1% was 23.5%, the highest since 1928 and more than twice the 10% level of the late 1970s. Read more

Occupy Wall St.: This Is Not a Head Scratcher