The Economists and Paul Volcker

Dear Folks, We always need clarity in this confusing world. The economy has crushed billions of people. Two corrections are needed: (l) Bringing more and more of the Wall St criminals to justice and supporting the Occupy Wall St movement. Its vital power is based on the enormous sense of injustice that has befallen so many and has left unpunished the mighty few. A turn around is coming, via two Attorney Generals, both from states where so many of the big corps have their headquarters, New York and Delaware. They are on the attack. The AG from Delaware is Beau Biden, son of Joe. He is initiating a suit that will have a sweeping consequence for many of the Wall ST. companies.


The protestors and all of us at home and on computers protesting will hail them as heroes, we hope. (The more solid correction is the Dodds Frank Law. Every liberal economist wanted it to be tougher. Volcker points out that the law has teeth in several areas: requiring more capital as a basis for investing, derivates now must be reported and so can be better monitored and finally morally sound auditors as well as regulators.Fannie and Freddie need especially to be regulated and even extinguished in order to better protect people with mortgages. He warns regulator about the insidious influence of lobbyists, in a discussion with Charley Rose. TARP was necessary, he told Rose, to keep us from even a worse crisis. He also supports Occupy Wall St. They have a legitimate gripe. He noted also --as have others --that in last 30 yrs, top l0 % experienced around a 250 % increase in income, and the one & much more, whereas the average middle class only increased by about l2 %. Overall, folk, the protestors have CHANGED THE DIALOGUE BACK TO JOBS AND THE ECONOMY INSTEAD OF CUT EXPENSES AND PROTECT THE RICH. John G