Hundreds of protesters march on NY's WallStreet

Hundreds of protesters march on NY's Wall Street

By Chris Francescani and 1. Sharon Reich NEW YORK | Thu Nov 17, 2011 10:46am EST

(Reuters) - Hundreds of Occupy Wall Street protesters marched through New York's financial district toward the stock exchange on Thursday to protest economic inequality at the heart of American capitalism.

Scores of police barricaded the narrow streets around the stock exchange and used batons to push the protesters onto the sidewalk as they marched from a nearby park in a bid to prevent financial workers from getting to their desks.

"I feel like this is a beautiful moment to take back our streets," said Rachel Falcone, 27, from Brooklyn. "We need to prove we can exist anywhere. It's gone beyond a single neighborhood, it's really an idea."

Chanting "We are the 99 percent" -- a reference to their contention that the U.S. political system benefits only the richest 1 percent -- the protesters broke off into groups and tried to enter Wall Street from various points.

By 10 a.m. (1500 GMT), Police spokesman Paul Browne said, about 50 people had been arrested at various locations in the financial district, mainly for disorderly conduct and resisting arrest.

At one point, some protesters chanted to police: "You're sexy, you're blue, now take off that riot suit."

Taxi driver Mike Tupea, a Romanian immigrant, said his car had been stuck amid the protesters for 40 minutes.

"I have to make a living. I pay $100 for 12 hours for this cab. I am losing money every minute,'" he said. "I have all my sympathies for this movement but let me do my living, let working people make a living."

Most rallies by the 2-month-old movement in New York have been attended by hundreds of people, but a spokesman for the protesters and city officials said on Wednesday that they expected tens of thousands to turn out for the day of action.

Protesters were planning to take their protest to 16 subway hubs later on Thursday, then return to City Hall for a rally before marching across the Brooklyn Bridge. Last month, more than 700 people were arrested during a similar march across the bridge after some protesters blocked traffic. 'GET A JOB' The demonstration comes two days after police evicted hundreds of protesters from their camp at Zuccotti Park in lower Manhattan, where the Occupy Wall Street movement was born on September 17 and sparked solidarity rallies and occupations of public spaces across the United States.

The Occupy Wall Street movement has also re-energized similar movements elsewhere in the world.

Peter Cohen, 47, an anthropologist from New York, wore a suit for the protest in a bid to improve the movement's image.

"I have a job and (the suit) on because I'm tired of the way this movement has been characterized as a fringe movement," said Cohen. "I'm not looking for money, I'm not looking for a job, I'm not a professional activist, just a normal citizen."

Protesters say they are upset that billions of dollars in bailouts given to banks during the recession allowed a return to huge profits while average Americans have had no relief from high unemployment and a struggling economy.

They also say the richest 1 percent of Americans do not pay their fair share of taxes.

"I'm hoping they can succeed in shutting down the stock exchange for the day," said Paul Layton, a trial lawyer, as he tried to get to his financial district office. "And that through their efforts they can convince government to regulate the financial industry."

The New York Stock Exchange opened on time and was operating normally.

Derek Tabacco was not happy as he tried to get to the offices of his financial technology company and was carrying a sign with a message for the protesters

that read "Get a job."

The clearing of the Occupy camp in New York followed evictions in Atlanta, Portland and Salt Lake City. Unlike action in Oakland, California, where police used tear gas and stun grenades, most protesters left voluntarily.

Megyn Norbut, from Brooklyn, said she holds down three jobs and that she joined the protest on Thursday "because we got kicked out of Zuccotti and we need to show that this is a mental and spiritual movement, not a physical movement."

"It's not about the park," said Norbut, 23. (Writing by Michelle Nichols; editing by Doina Chiacu and Mohammad Zargham)

The Fed and the ‘We Owe the Debt to Ourselves’ Fallacy Bill Anderson 1. LRC Blog November 17, 2011 As of now, the largest holder of U.S. Government debt is the Federal Reserve System (something ignored by the mainstream media), and I would look for this situation to accelerate rapidly, as the government is going to claim it now can fund its expenditures with “free money.” No doubt, Paul Krugman and the others will promote the fallacy of “we owe it to ourselves” and that there is no opportunity cost in the Fed directly monetizing government debt.

(Krugman now is screaming for more inflation, as though we can save the economy by printing more dollars.)

The implications are ominous, as the Obama administration has demonstrated its hostility toward those sectors of the economy that actually are profitable (in relatively free markets) and is using massive subsidies to prop up those sectors (such as “green energy”) that are unprofitable. As the Obama policies of “starve the profitable industries to feed those that are unprofitable but politically-connected” continue to drag down the economy, the government will try to hide those losses through more spending financed by Fed-purchased debt. These are perilous times, indeed.

MF Global Money Now “Missing” After Reports It Was Sent To JP Morgan Paul Joseph Watson Infowars.com Thursday, November 17, 2011 “Exactly what happened, I don’t think anyone knows” Over $600 million dollars in customer funds that was transferred out of MF Global in a wave of suspicious trades before the collapse of the financial broker has now been declared “missing,” despite the fact that reports earlier in the month stated the money had been placed in an account with Wall Street giant JP Morgan.

2. As we reported yesterday, clients of MF Global and its subsidiaries, including prominent trends forecaster Gerald Celente, were shocked to learn that their accounts had been emptied by Chapter 11 trustees. The looting took place in the days before MF Global’s collapse following revelations that the broker was exposed to crisis-hit European debt bonds.

However, weeks beforehand, billionaire investors like the Koch brothers had the miraculous foresight to withdraw all their money, prompting accusations that big players got a ‘heads up’ in advance of the firm’s collapse.

“The missing $600 million has still not been located despite an army of regulators, investigators, lawyers and others descending on the disgraced futures brokerage to conduct a search. Judging from media reports, people are still at a complete loss to explain how so much in client money could just disappear,” reports Fierce Finance.

News reports concerning the notion that the money has seemingly vanished into thin air are absent any mention of prior reports that confirmed the funds had been deposited with

JP Morgan Chase.

1. On November 4, the Financial Times reported that hundreds of millions in looted funds from customers’ accounts later “turned up at JPMorgan Chase, the failed broker-dealer’s custody bank.”

Citing a report in the Wall Street Journal, Fox Business also reported that MF Global, “recently discovered that about $659 million of its customer segregated accounts resided in an account at banking heavyweight JPMorgan Chase (JPM).”

However, after JP Morgan claimed the funds found in its account “isn’t the missing money” stolen from MF Global clients, the story went cold, despite MF Global executives claiming otherwise. Either MF Global or JP Morgan are telling porkies.

The lawyer for James Giddens, the trustee supervising the liquidation of the MF Global, said “Exactly what happened, I don’t think anyone knows,” in reference to the missing $600 million.

Thousands of irate customers have been told they will only get around 60 per cent of the money back that was in their accounts, a total release of $520 million, despite the fact that Giddens has access to more than $1.4 billion.

END THE FED