Growing Unrest Threatening Financial Oligarchy?

Well, probably not yet, but there are certainly signs that popular unrest could soon be having an effect. From the Occupy Wall Street movement that spread across the country and the successful Facebook revolt against Bank of America to the protests in Wisconsin and Ohio (against anti-collective bargaining legislation) to a burgeoning discourse in media actually addressing income inequality (like here and here), there is a growing recognition that current economic policy is unsustainable for the long run. What is surprising, as this resistance organizes and begins to have its voice heard, is how tone-deaf corporate America appears to be to the growing din. At the top of the list are the biggest banks, who benefited from the government bailout but have now decided they were not to blame, and that they must fight any effort to undermine their power or regulate their business. CEOs across the country also seem unwilling to actually address the fact that they are making money on the backs of the public. And the Chamber of Commerce and other organizations just keep throwing money at the problem, buying up Congressional support without any nod to the common good or the long term viability of a jobless recovery with record profits.

Popular discontent with contemporary economic reality is not, of course, isolated to the U.S. In fact, British workers went on strike en masse yesterday to protest the conservative attempts to undermine their pensions, healthcare and wages. Just as in America, the conservative government led by Cameron is trying to use deficits as the excuse for these cuts, while ignoring popular calls for tax increases on business and the wealthy. In the British case, the strikes are so widespread that they are already having profound social and economic ramifications (Slate) with millions of nurses, teachers, police officers, airport border guards and others from 30 trade unions uniting to fight the attempt to further undermine their lifestyles. Can the people begin to dent the corporate takeover of our lives? Stay tuned ...