By Jim Stanford on October 7, 2011
Banksters at Wells Fargo got a $25 billion bailout, while the rest of us pay higher fees for poorer service, making it as good a place as any for a protest.
Occupy Wall Street continues to gain momentum, with new protests springing up every day. Perhaps inspired by this Wyoming man featured prominently at Wednesday’s march in New York, activists have begun organizing in Casper, Laramie, Cheyenne and now Jackson.
A protest over economic inequality would be appropriate in a resort town where so many of America’s titans of capitalism shuttle in and out on private jets to trophy mansions. And a rally would be a suitable place for those local zombies to show up and clog the downtown streets, which they’ve become fond of lately.
“It would be fun to show some support from the Hole — besides, I haven’t been in a good demonstration since 1969,” writes one reader.
When I originally set out to write this post, I intended it to be tongue in cheek, suggesting that, similar to the Wall Street sit-in, a Jackson protest could serve as a nexus of nebulous causes, with residents decrying everything from closure of the north 89 pathway to the recent killing of a grizzly bear in Yellowstone National Park to even the ban on uphill skiing at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort (which is, after all, our largest corporation).
But this is no joke. When you look at the 99 Percent blog or this chart, which has been making the rounds, it’s hard not to get irate. Organizers are mulling an event for the weekend of Oct. 15-16. Stay tuned for #OccupyJH updates.
http://mashable.com/2011/10/07/ows/
Pretty impressive. The Facebook map was made before the Wyoming events were organized.
Finally, a list of demands from the Occupy Groups. I think this is reasonable.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2KLyBapfTc
protest the gov’t.Not the bank. If the gov’t had offered you a lot of money chances are that all of the protestors would have taken it.And it appears that most of the protestors do not have jobs.
Yeah, they are called the unemployed. 20% of those under 20 years old fall into that group. US corp. are sitting on billions in cash but will not hire. They would rather squeeze more out of their current employees and send the rest of the work overseas. Oh yeah and many of them pay no US taxes. THIS is what they are protesting.
Thanks JG. Made me smile.
What a joke, a bunch of dirty hippies protesting capitalism while they text one another on their I Phones. The poor oppressed masses with their ipods and iphones, who are too proud to take the jobs that are available. What a bunch of fools and idiots, anti semites to boot
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3Y9CARUwio
Sure, danno, that guy in the video is representative of everyone participating in these protests.
Ha…Danno wear’s a side arm to the Brew Pub.
Yes JD.GE is a great example.
capitol gains drove the engine of the valley
I went with an online bank that has no physical offices about a year ago and it works fine for me. I don’t have any special banking needs and I use direct deposit for my paycheck. I went with ING Bank (ING Direct). Ally is also popular. Even State Farm Insurance is now offering online banking.
Make the switch if it works for you.
I keep hearing that this is class warfare. It is, but the rich are already winning.
When someone compares a whole movement to one person’s view, one video, it makes me think they only rely on one source for all of their news (but I won’t mention who I think that could be). Open your eyes, look around you – everyone is hurting right now, and some are finally taking a stand against that. And many of these people are working hard, not the unemployed hippies that everyone likes to bring up in these situations. Why do we always blame the hippies?
So, any updates as to whether or not this is happening this weekend? I wanna join!
Your government, the folks on the right & the left, helped create the mess we find ourselves in. Have a march over to Mike Enzi’s office before you run over to Wells Fargo. Mike Enzi is working to make sure banks can screw you all over again.
This caught my eye….
LATimes:
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, who said he was “increasingly concerned about the growing mobs on Wall Street and the other cities across the country.
Cantor went on to explain why the “mobs” were so objectionable — they were “pitting … Americans against Americans.”
HAHAHAHAH!!!!!
This is a lot more indicative of what the protest is like:
http://vimeo.com/30081785
J, I believe the Occupy Jackson event will be (begin?) next week. Oct. 16, tentatively.
Jim do you, personally, receive poor service from the employees at Wells Fargo?
The Republicans will successfully paint the crowd as Dope-Smoking Liberal Pinko Commie Leftist Berkeley Wacko Hippy-loving Union-supported Organic Odd Balls who couldn’t hold a job at McDonald’s or make a profit with a lemonade stand.
The OWS crowd needs to look & sound like middle America to win the hearts & minds of middle America. They need to focus on a single theme & go after politicians. Politicians hold power.
Financial institutions may have annoying practices and they may be the beneficiary of misguided government decisions but the protests against them aren’t going to have a meaningful impact on the lives of most Americans because the financial institutions aren’t going to capitulate and start acting like a non-profit spiritual co-ops.
Your elected officials are the ones that need to hear your voice. Follow the Tea Party.
Rob, the tellers and people I deal with are friendly and helpful. There just seems to be fewer of them since the acquisition of JSB by Wells Fargo. More lines, more fees. This wasn’t meant as an indictment of that particular branch, but if you were looking for a big bank for a target in Jackson, you could start there. Wells Fargo paid back its $25 billion bailout, but only after shoring up its position as too big to fail.
The only difference between the Tea Party – which also dislikes the bank bailouts & has utopian aspirations for America that are mostly delusional – is that the Occupy crowd has yet to find its nut-job leader.
Here’s an interesting recap of the movement thus far. If you’re not familiar with where it started and where it is now, this is worth reading.
http://www.fastcompany.com/1785918/the-inside-story-of-occupy-wall-street?partner=rss&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+fastcompany%2Fheadlines+%28Fast+Company+Headlines%29
The Occupy Wall Street group needs a name change if it plans to have any staying power. Herman Cain is already milking the “angry liberals” theme. That will stick.
Obama has proven that he doesn’t know how to fight political battles and this group is proving that the rest of the his supporters can’t either.
Click Above.
From: Bloomberg
“Occupy Wall Street Needs Goals, Or Funnel Cake: William D. Cohan”
Give them time, Sarah. Thousands vying for the postion as we blog.
This movement is about as organic as the TEA party movement, which is not organic at all. It‘s all put on by the people with big money ideology on both side, which is what they are supposedly fighting against.
Start by using a local bank, then try educating yourself before you vote. Voting down party lines is one reason we are in this mess to begin with. America has become increasingly ignorant; the movie Idiocracy comes to mind….
Wyoming is one state that you should not be unemployed, there are plenty of jobs you just have to swallow your pride and really WORK for your money. If you’re protesting the unemployment rate in this state, you are part of the problem.
We are in for a world of hurt in this country and both Democrats and Republican are to blame.
Occupy JH is going strong. We have an event planned for this Saturday, October 15 at noon on the Town Square!
An addendum on the chart of CEO pay to worker pay: http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2011/oct/10/facebook-posts/viral-facebook-post-ceo-worker-pay-ratio-has-obscu/
I had been looking for some verification of the figures, seeing as how the widely circulated table is unsourced, and if you look at the Reddit comments on the link I posted, there is some ballpark verification.
But this examination by Politifact confirms that the chart is an exaggeration: The ratio of what an average U.S. CEO earns compared to the average worker is only about 200 or 300 to 1.
Your caption isn’t entirely accurate:
“Banksters at Wells Fargo got a $25 billion bailout, while the rest of us pay higher fees for poorer service, making it as good a place as any for a protest.”
Wells was FORCED by, then Secretary of the Treasury, Hank Paulson to take a $25B “bailout.” This is a widely documented fact. The esoteric plan of a mandatory recapitalization of all the top nine banks was intended to reduce or eliminate the risk of a run on any one bank. Hate it or love it, it worked from that standpoint.
It’s also widely documented that Wells was one of the few banks that could have weathered the storm on it’s own. Instead, the govt saddled them with another $25B in debt and forced new regulations on them that came as strings attached to the $25B.
As a result, Wells cut their dividend by 85% and had to go through a lengthy recapitalization and overhaul of their business which included mass layoffs. higher fees, and reductions in customer service.
The Occupy Groups are looking to clearly define their agenda and a path that leads to solutions.
They should use this group as a guide in creative problem solving.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNfGyIW7aHM
We could all learn from these intelligent and optimistic people.
The whole “movement” doesn’t make any sense; are people protesting capitalism?
If you don’t like the bank, put your money somewhere else. Your power as a consumer is a lot more effective than disorganized protesting.
Is this still happening on Saturday? Would like to show my support.
Absolutely. Saturday and Sunday, beginning at noon. More details here: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=160219260734910
Sign-making party at 7 p.m. tonight at Factory Studios.
Follow Link.
Instability of Inequality – Roubini
D- please document your assertion that OWS is somehow funded by wealthy interests, presumably so that they can protest against wealthy interests. Doesn’t pass the laugh test.
Jon- Neither Wells Fargo nor any other TBTF bank was forced to take government money. All of them were facing insolvency. The idea that banks were powerless in the face of a government which they have bought and paid for is ludicrous.
That was a bridge loan until the banks could earn their way to solvency via extremely low fed target rates (a tax on savers like me), and by greatly reducing funding costs (brought about by a massive taxpayer guarantee of their shitty assets.
In the meantime, our government has looked the other way while Wells Fargo has committed systematic fraud while illegally foreclosing on people and quite literally stealing their homes, while the congress and court system they have bought and paid for has stood by silently.