Occupy what

Occupy wall street, Beursplein, Rome, Brussels, Sydney. All around the world activists are protesting against banks, investors, politicians that are blamed for this economic mess we are in. But shouldn’t they go to the White house or to Harvard or Yale as well? Were those not occupied long ago already by Wall street? If I should believe the documentary Inside Job. Go see it, if only because it is so well made technically and has some stunning interviews of faltering hotshots who do not remember all that well what they were doing. Well, the power of film makes it a breathtaking overview of decades of building up to this implosion of the largest investment banks, mortgage lenders and intermediaries. In understandable language. An implosion that cost the economy worldwide 20 trillion of dollars and left millions jobless. The biggest swindle of all times the maker calls it. And it ain’t over yet, it claims. But is it that simple, was it the banks and rating agencies? Maybe it was us all, consumers that were not thinking straight, and wanted to borrow their way out of misery and suffer unbearable debts. Or the government that wanted growth of GDP so much that they would be re-elected in 4 years. This is just a crisis as it happens more often I think. Bubbles are part of the system until they burst. And yet in between we are still flourishing enough to call it the best system around. But troubling is that the crises happen within even shorter periods now, so the next dip is around the corner… well if you describe it in terms of growth, income, profit. But that is only a concept. After the film, while talking in the street we were begged for some coins by a homeless man. Reality couldn’t be more illustrative. And seeing the Maybach that was always in front of the hotel, now being reduced to a Mercedes 500SL… Mmmm…that is a serious sign…