OWS: Rules of the Game

By Todd Gibson

Occupy Wall Street turned 1 month old recently. What a difference a month makes. The movement went global this past weekend with OWS protests in many cities here in the US as well as abroad. What is the big deal? I'll try to answer that.

The movement, recently, is being courted by the Democratic party, but the movement is hesitant to affiliate. The movement now garners nightly news coverage. The movement still has not set an agenda or even specific talking points. All this being true, the movement is gaining momentum.

I wrote in my last OWS article that this was going to be a big deal, and now it seems it is here to stay. It has touched a nerve with people, some of which don't even know "why" they agree.

I feel the answer to “why” is simple. Inequality. I, like a lot of folks in OWS, believe in a moral compass. A basic moral law is to pay back what you owe. If I borrowed a dollar, I'll pay it back. If I take debt out on car, house, education etc., I pay it back.

Financial institutions around the world have continued to not pay back what they owe. All the while, the citizens are held to the "paying their debt" standard. The main issue with the banks is that they have assets from mortgages to sovereign debt that is worth .30 to .50 cents on the dollar. They refuse to mark these assets and claim they must transfer their bad debts to governments around the world in terms of expanding debt worldwide (i.e.. expanding the FED's and Central Governments Balance Sheets).

This is all plays against the backdrop of banks continuing multi-billion dollar quarterly profits. Something doesn't jive. Banks have bad loans.....mark the loss, move on. No harm no foul. There will be consequences, but no one held banks at gun point to take on this non-performing debt......ESPECIALLY when it was making them money.

The movement continues with many ideas and claims swirling around the word greed. Greed is good when you play by the rules. Yet, it is not fair for banks and other financial institutions to play with one set of rules (they profit they win, they lose we lose), while we the people play by a different set.(profit we win, loss we lose). It is a Zero Sum game.

These protests will continue until the game is fair, or the market will force the rules on the ones who choose not to play by them.