Occupy was right, says Bank of England Executive Director of Financial Stability

[limpyhobbler]

The protesters who occupied Wall Street and parts of London and other cities were morally and intellectually right, a senior Bank of England official said.

"Some have suggested ... that Occupy's voice has been loud but vague -- long on problems, short on solutions," Andrew Haldane, a member of the central bank's Financial Policy Committee, told an event called "Socially Useful Banking," organized by Occupy Economics, an offshoot of the Occupy movement, in London Monday night.

"Others have argued that the fault lines in the global financial system, which chasmed during the crisis, are essentially unaltered -- that reform has failed," he said.

"I wish to argue that both are wrong -- that Occupy's voice has been both loud and persuasive and that policymakers have listened and are acting in ways which will close those fault lines," said Haldane, the bank's executive director of financial stability.
...

via: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2012/10/30/Bank-of-England-director-Occupy-was-right/UPI-98241351578600

...Haldane, who oversees the City for the central bank, said Occupy acted as a lever on policymakers despite criticism that its aims were too vague. He said the protest movement was right to focus on inequality as the chief reason for the 2008 crash, following studies that showed the accumulation of huge wealth funded by debt was directly responsible for the domino-like collapse of the banking sector in 2008....

via http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/oct/29/bank-of-england-occupy-movement

For his part, Haldane broke some interesting ground during the evening’s extended question-and-answer session. At one point, he signalled that “there was no great ideological chasm” preventing the adoption of a Financial Transaction Tax that would be “felt disproportionately” by high frequency traders and that the risk of large banks moving their headquarters out of the country was “somewhat overblown … Lots of countries now have seen the perils of having big banks on their doorstep, especially when they blow up.” [1]

In recognising that a “new leaf” is being turned, Andy Haldane’s speech specifically mentions how Occupy has played “a key role in this fledgling financial reformation.”
...

via http://occupylondon.org.uk/archives/17783

[xchrom]

1. Du rec. Nt

[daleanime]

2. Bump.

[TahitiNut]

3. I wish they'd stop saying "inequality"

... when the far more meaningful term would be "inequity." SOME degree of inequality is inevitable in far too many senses. The crux of the matter is the obscene bias in the system... a bias in favor of the already wealthy. The average 'corporation' has been constructed as a "wealth redistribution" black box ... redistributing wealth from labor to the wealthy. The abominable "employee compensation" policies and mechanisms have resulted in the LOWEST percentage of compensation to labor for the wealth created in over 80 years. The average S&P500 corporation pays employees less than 30% of the value of the wealth they create. The "food chain" of ownership entitlements get the lion's share by far.

[begin_within]

4. Exactly. The essence of capitalism is funneling money into the hands of the capitalist.

[merrily]

5. Excellent point.

"Equal" does not necessarily mean "equitable," or vice versa.

[merrily]

6. Great comments from the banker and great job putting together the OP.

I hope this banker knows to stay out of small planes.

[Fire Walk With Me]

7. +1!