{"id":8620,"date":"2011-10-08T15:44:02","date_gmt":"2011-10-08T15:44:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mugshotmonday.com\/site2\/what-can-we-say-about-the-protests-first-things\/"},"modified":"2011-10-08T15:44:02","modified_gmt":"2011-10-08T15:44:02","slug":"what-can-we-say-about-the-protests-first-things","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mugshotmonday.com\/site2\/what-can-we-say-about-the-protests-first-things\/","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

What can we say about the protests? First things first: The protesters\u2019 indictment of Wall Street as a destructive force, economically and politically, is completely right. <\/p>\n

A weary cynicism, a belief that justice will never get served, has taken over much of our political debate \u2014 and, yes, I myself have sometimes succumbed. In the process, it has been easy to forget just how outrageous the story of our economic woes really is. So, in case you\u2019ve forgotten, it was a play in three acts. <\/p>\n

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 \u2014 but bankers were bailed out by taxpayers, with remarkably few strings attached, even as ordinary workers continued to suffer the consequences of the bankers\u2019 sins. And, in the third act, bankers showed their gratitude by turning on the people who had saved them, throwing their support \u2014 and the wealth they still possessed thanks to the bailouts \u2014 behind politicians who promised to keep their taxes low and dismantle the mild regulations erected in the aftermath of the crisis. <\/p>\n

Given this history, how can you not applaud the protesters for finally taking a stand?<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n

Paul Krugman, from “Confronting the Malefactors” – NYTimes.com<\/a><\/p>\n

I found this opinion piece helpful as I try to understand the Occupy Wall Street protests better. Good read.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What can we say about the protests? First things first: The protesters\u2019 indictment of Wall Street as a destructive force, economically and politically, is completely right. A weary cynicism, a belief that justice will never get served, has taken over much of our political debate \u2014 and, yes, I myself have sometimes succumbed. In the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"quote","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[824,2738,169,1107],"class_list":["post-8620","post","type-post","status-publish","format-quote","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-economy","tag-occupy-wall-street","tag-politics","tag-protests","post_format-post-format-quote"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mugshotmonday.com\/site2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8620","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mugshotmonday.com\/site2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mugshotmonday.com\/site2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mugshotmonday.com\/site2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mugshotmonday.com\/site2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8620"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mugshotmonday.com\/site2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8620\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mugshotmonday.com\/site2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8620"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mugshotmonday.com\/site2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8620"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mugshotmonday.com\/site2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}