Time’s 2011 ‘Person’ of the Year was ‘The Protester’ as embodied by the protesters fueling the Arab Spring and Occupy . Writing from his new perch at The Atlantic, Robert Wright takes issue with Time’s choice: I wish that three weeks ago Time magazine hadn’t named ‘The Protestor’ the person of the year for 2011. It […]
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Occupy successfully disrupted operations at the Port of this week, but their actions further alienate the movement from average American workers. Occupy may be facing evictions and other trip-ups across the nation, but in the movement is taking matters into its own hands. For the second time in as many months, Occupy protesters have disrupted […]
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I have written as a friendly critic – or a skeptical supporter? – of the Occupy movement many times now. Over the weekend I wrote several posts condemning the police violence at UC Davis and UC Berkeley that occurred this past week. Before that, I wrote several posts about the limits of the protest movement […]
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When the first major evacuation of Occupy was ordered, and police responded in full riot gear, I wrote at the time: A little friendly advice for the police: if you want a protest or a rally to dissipate, ignore it. Until it turns into a violent riot, ignore it. Even if it goes on for […]
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Events like the one in the above video have been far too common in the police response to Occupy protests across the country. I do believe that Occupy is at a tipping point, and that it must grow beyond and evolve away from the tent city occupations, but this police response is absurd and excessive. […]
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Is Occupy suffering from its own success? Perhaps it’s time the movement evolved beyond angry protests and tent cities. I was glad when I first heard learned about Occupy . Economic inequality is a real issue, not so much because of the inequality itself but because of what that inequality says about opportunity in America, […]
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Bank of America, cowed by customer outrage and bad press and by the quick retreat of its biggest competitors from charging similar fees, has ditched their $5 monthly debit card fees. “We have listened to our customers very closely over the last few weeks and recognize their concern with our proposed debit usage fee,” said […]
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Nearly every country in the developed world has some form of universal access to health insurance. The glaring exception to this rule is the United States. As a proponent of free markets, I find this to be a glaring failure on the part of American policy makers and business leaders. So we see Occupy Wall […]
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A number of commenters pushed back against me when I argued that taxing the rich, without fixing other injustices within our political system, would not be enough. Darren G warned that I was arguing “a straw man.” The recent poll published in the WSJ showed that 30% of the OWS protesters were motivated by ” […]
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I find most discussions of taxation mind-numbingly stupid. We have a terrible tax code. It’s full of bad incentives. It’s written by people in the thrall of public opinion or pledged to Grover Norquist’s silly no-new-taxes pledge. It’s an ad hoc disaster that makes many tax lawyers and tax software people very rich. Many people […]
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