Wall Street Versus Main Street Understanding Why "The System" Is Broken

Wall Street Versus Main Street is what the Occupy Movement is all about. This book describes in clear and compelling terms how “the system” favors the 1% at the expense of the 99%. It’s written with the insider’s knowledge of a former banker, the reportorial skills of a former Fortune Magazine reporter and the passion of someone who came to clearly understand the economic injustice of the system. Ince pulls no punches in the process. He knows that bankers have a balancing act to play because the money they create is supposed to serve both public and private purposes. But bankers don’t balance their responsibility, opting for excess because they know that if they get in trouble, Uncle Sam will bail them out. In effect bankers privatize gains and socialize losses, pocketing obscene bonuses in the process. Today, dire economic circumstances are pushing us into uncharted territory. Our moment of reckoning is rapidly advancing. The current system concentrates economic power in the hands of private, profit making institutions whose primary fiduciary responsibility is to provide a financial return to shareholders. That fiduciary responsibility trumps any other consideration, including the interests and needs of the larger society. Capitalism now is in the midst of an identity crisis. There is a profound shift taking place in public consciousness and we are just now beginning to understand its implications. Today this identity crisis is playing itself out on the world stage. Our world finds itself on the brink of an unprecedented crises of an epic proportions, from the sovereign debt crisis in Europe, to Congress’ inability to tackle U. S. debt issues, to student loan indebtedness to the mortgage mess. Many times in history the world has faced financial crises but never have they been of such magnitude and never before have so many of our most fundamental assumptions and institutions found themselves under such serious scrutiny. Whether the system is on the brink of catastrophic collapse, or simply putting forth a clarion call to change depends upon our response. The root cause of our crises lies nowhere else but in our modes of thinking and the systems that support that thinking. To Wall Street, it’s all a big game and they’re winning. Who will win this game? Wall Street or Main Street? You can be sure … Wall Street is prepared to do battle. The illusions surrounding our Money and Banking System ultimately double back upon themselves and stare themselves in the face, like an infinitely reflecting mirror of trust. Upon this trust has been constructed an entire edifice we call the global economy. It’s an infinitely leveraged system built upon a foundation of debt that blows like sand in the wind. The debt based capital flows that are the lifeblood of our economy originate somehow, somewhere from within the inner sanctums of imposing temple-like structures in Washington, DC, huge banking towers that seem to touch the sky, and digital accounting entries that are as ephemeral as the 10 trillion dollars of wealth that simply evaporated during the recent liquidity crunch. If Capitalism is just a big game, then who are the players and what are the rules? Who and what determines who wins? What are the teams and who are the players on the teams? These are the issues that Ince dissects in this provocative book that is a must read for anyone concerned about where we are headed in highly uncertain economic times.