Third and State

Paul Krugman describes our economic woes as a three-act play; now you Occupy Wall Street kids turn it into zombie banker street theater!

• Paul Krugman, The New York Times — Confronting the Malefactors

So, in case you’ve forgotten, it was a play in three acts. In the first act, bankers took advantage of deregulation to run wild (and pay themselves princely sums), inflating huge bubbles through reckless lending. In the second act, the bubbles burst — but bankers were bailed out by taxpayers, with remarkably few strings attached, even as ordinary workers continued to suffer the consequences of the bankers’ sins. And, in the third act, bankers showed their gratitude by turning on the people who had saved them, throwing their support — and the wealth they still possessed thanks to the bailouts — behind politicians who promised to keep their taxes low and dismantle the mild regulations erected in the aftermath of the crisis. Given this history, how can you not applaud the protesters for finally taking a stand?

A story in The Philadelphia Inquirer suggests Occupy Wall Street - Philadelphia is off to good start and includes more than just unshowered hippie kids. My twitter feed this morning even included a rumor that the Mayor was going to approve a brief moment of electricity so the protestors can watch the Phillies in Game 5 of the National League division series against the St. Louis Cardinals. As the saying goes, we want bread AND roses Phillies.

• Harold Brubaker, The Philadelphia Inquirer — Occupy Philadelphia starts slowly, builds to about 700 protesters:

In the course of the morning, infrastructure — the kind meant to sustain the protest — started falling into place. After an organizer hopped up on a stone wall and called out that tables were needed for first aid and other stations, a rabbi from a nearby temple offered four tables, as did a community group called Fight for Philly. District 1199C of the National Union of Hospital and Health Care Employees donated office space for Occupy Philadelphia's legal team. Philadelphia Jobs with Justice, a coalition of labor unions and student, community, and religious groups, agreed to allow financial donations for the protest to be funneled through it, to ensure compliance with tax laws. The stagehands union said it would have a professional sound system in place for Friday, eliminating the need for the 'people's mike' — a system of echoing by the crowd, so all could hear.