Reporters Say Police Denied Access to Protest Site 4:26 p.m. | Updated As New York City police cleared the Occupy Wall Street campsite in Zuccotti Park early Tuesday morning, many journalists were blocked from observing and interviewing protesters. Some called it a “media blackout” and said in interviews that they believed that the police efforts were a deliberate attempt to tamp down coverage of the operation. The city blog Gothamist put it this way: “The NYPD Didn’t Want You To See Occupy Wall Street Get Evicted.” As a result, much of the early video of the police operation was from the vantage point of the protesters. Videos that were live-streamed on the Web and uploaded to YouTube were picked up by television networks and broadcast on Tuesday morning. At a news conference after the park was cleared Mayor Michael R. Ms. That reporter and two photographers with him declined to speak on the record because they are freelance workers and lack some of the job protections of full-time employees. Paul J. Mr.
The New Forbes 400 — and Their $1.5 Trillion America’s 400 richest now hold a fortune almost as large as their 2007 pre-Great Recession record. By Sam Pizzigati How swell a year have America’s 400 richest enjoyed over the past 12 months? Forbes has been publishing an annual list of America’s 400 richest ever since 1982. Every deep pocket on this year’s Forbes 400 list ranks as a billionaire. Forbes, year in and year out, does a wonderfully thorough job of gauging the individual fortunes of America’s most fortunate. The basic numbers from all this research: As of the end of last month, August 26 to be exact, America’s top 400 held a combined $1.53 trillion in personal wealth, a total 12 percent up from last year — and not that far off the top 400 all-time high, $1.57 trillion, set in 2007, the year before the Great Recession hit. These massive numbers impress. In other words, every deep pocket on this year’s Forbes 400 list ranks as a billionaire. Now these comparisons, to be sure, don’t take inflation into account.
The Great American Bubble Machine | Politics News The first thing you need to know about Goldman Sachs is that it's everywhere. The world's most powerful investment bank is a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money. In fact, the history of the recent financial crisis, which doubles as a history of the rapid decline and fall of the suddenly swindled dry American empire, reads like a Who's Who of Goldman Sachs graduates. Invasion of the Home Snatchers By now, most of us know the major players. But then, any attempt to construct a narrative around all the former Goldmanites in influential positions quickly becomes an absurd and pointless exercise, like trying to make a list of everything. The Feds vs. They achieve this using the same playbook over and over again. BUBBLE #1 The Great Depression Goldman wasn't always a too-big-to-fail Wall Street behemoth, the ruthless face of kill-or-be-killed capitalism on steroids —just almost always. Where to go?
Ydanis Rodriguez Arrested: New York City Council Member Hit And Arrested During Police Raid Zuccotti Park At a press conference Wednesday, Rodriguez addressed what happened for the first time. He said he tried to identify himself as police officers pushed him back with batons. "They kept pushing," Rodriguez said. 'The force was so strong when they were pushing me. Then suddenly a police officer jumped from the middle of the street. Rodriguez said he will be at Foley Square today at 5pm celebrating the two-month anniversary of the Occupy Wall Street movement. @ydanis Ydanis Rodriguez Tomorrow will be the biggest day of action in support of #occupywallstreet yet-see you all at foley square at 5pm! According to the Occupy Wall Street organization, at 5 pm, tens of thousands of people will gather at Foley Square, just across from City Hall, in solidarity with laborers demanding jobs to rebuild this country's infrastructure and economy. UPDATE: 11/16/11 - "Ydanis Finally Free": According to Jumaane Williams, Rodriguez was released from custody almost 18 hours later, Williams tweeted. Jumaane D.
Forbes list of billionaires (2011) The World's Billionaires is an annual ranking of the world's wealthiest people, compiled and published by the American business magazine Forbes in March. The total net worth of each individual on the list is estimated, in United States dollars, based on their assets and accounting for debt. Royalty and dictators whose wealth comes from their positions are excluded from these lists.[1] The list has been published each year in March since 1987.[2] Microsoft founder Bill Gates has topped the list 16 of the past 21 years, including the 2015 list. Methodology[edit] Each year, Forbes employs a team of more than fifty reporters from a variety of countries to track the activity of the world's wealthiest individuals.[5] Preliminary surveys are sent to those who may qualify for make the list. Family fortunes dispersed over a large number of individuals are included only if those individuals' holdings are worth more than a billion dollars. 2015[edit] 2014[edit] 2013[edit] 2012[edit] 2011[edit] General
OccupyStream - Live Revolution [UPDATE] Occupy Wall Street Takes New Park, Near Holland Tunnel, Owned By Trinity Church [UPDATE BELOW] Occupy Wall Street has taken a new park at 6th Avenue and Canal Street, by the entrance to the Holland Tunnel, according to a spokesman for the protesters. The park, Duarte Square, is privately owned by Trinity Church, and according to a statement from the demonstrators, a "delegation of faith leaders just arrived to support the hundreds already gathered." But it's unclear if the occupation, which was kicked out of Zuccotti Park this morning, has the church's full blessing. The Times reports that "a delegation of protesters met with church officials to try to obtain permission. According to the Daily News, the first tent has already been set up. Update: Owen Premo, an Occupy Wall Street spokesman, tells us that there are about 50 people in the park at the moment. Update 11:55 a.m.: The protesters have moved wooden benches against the chain link fence around the park, forming a makeshift barricade that riot police will surely find insurmountable!
Occupy Wall Street: Thoughts from a Member of the One Percent « Venture Capital I walked from the West Side Highway to Chinatown yesterday in the early afternoon. I passed not one, but two marches uptown to Times Square and walked along with them for a while. New York City is in the throes of the OccupyWallStreet protests. What was most noticeable to me was not the protestors and their signs and chants; it was the amount of police accompanying them. I’ve been thinking a lot about this movement, what it means, and what it could lead to. I spent a good part of Thursday afternoon in Zuccotti Park. I empathize with the basic complaint of the #OWS movement – that the rich are getting richer and everyone else is getting poorer. And I’ve got issues with some of the subgroups in the #OWS movement. Our institutions are failing us. And yet, I’m an optimist. So much depends on what we get out of this growing desire for change.
CHARTS: Here's What The Wall Street Protesters Are So Angry About... The "Occupy Wall Street" protests are gaining momentum, having spread from a small park in New York to marches to other cities across the country. So far, the protests seem fueled by a collective sense that things in our economy are not fair or right. But the protesters have not done a good job of focusing their complaints—and thus have been skewered as malcontents who don't know what they stand for or want. (An early list of "grievances" included some legitimate beefs, but was otherwise just a vague attack on "corporations." Given that these are the same corporations that employ more than 100 million Americans and make the products we all use every day, this broadside did not resonate with most Americans). So, what are the protesters so upset about, really? Do they have legitimate gripes? To answer the latter question first, yes, they have very legitimate gripes.
Oakland Mayor Jean Quan Admits Cities Coordinated Crackdown on Occupy Movement | capitoilette Oakland Mayor Jean Quan (photo: Ella Baker Center) Embattled Oakland Mayor Jean Quan, speaking in an interview with the BBC (excerpted on The Takeaway radio program–audio of Quan starts at the 5:30 mark), casually mentioned that she was on a conference call with leaders of 18 US cities shortly before a wave of raids broke up Occupy Wall Street encampments across the country. “I was recently on a conference call with 18 cities across the country who had the same situation. . . .” Mayor Quan then rambles about how she “spoke with protestors in my city” who professed an interest in “separating from anarchists,” implying that her police action was helping this somehow. Interestingly, Quan then essentially advocates that occupiers move to private spaces, and specifically cites Zuccotti Park as an example: Might it also be more than a coincidence that this succession of police raids started after President Obama left the US for an extended tour of the Pacific Rim? Like this: Like Loading...