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From AaronKlein/World Net Daily
September 12, 2011
By Brenda J. Elliott
The tipoff for George Soros’ involvement with the September 17 anti-banker OccupyWallStreet direct action comes by way of Alice Khatib, an “Expat activist, lover, info-geek” who is “trying to play [her] role on the #globalrevolution.”1
Khatib wrote yesterday — on behalf of the “citizens and non-citizens” of The General Assembly of New York City — in aTake the Square message, that “One of the first concrete steps we have decided to take is to participate in a global day of action against [the] financial capital on September 17, 2011.”
Khatib continues: “We invite you to join us in this action by peacefully occupying the streets and squares surrounding the Wall Street area in New York City beginning on September 17.”
What has been unknown to date is what do “they” want?
As I wrote a few days ago, the plan is to encamp on Wall Street in New York City and internationally in major financial centers. The September 17 target is the banks.
However, the agenda goes way beyond this. Khatib provides a partial list of “demands” that are chock-a-block full of head-scratching suggestions.
At the moment we do not have a specific list of demands. However, the Assembly initiated a conversation through which a number of proposals and perspectives unfolded.
Some of us think that the imposition of a Robin Hood Tax on all financial transactions, tax increases on capital gains, and the reinstatement of the Glass-Steagall Act are three essential measures to reestablish a minimum of fiscal sanity in the United States and abroad.
Some of us think that true autonomy and independence cannot be achieved through fiscal reform.
Some of us believe that we ought to reboot the system, rewrite the constitution, recuse a system of government employed by the rich for the rich.
Many of us think that what truly matters at this stage is to create a shared framework which may enable everyone to speak out, be heard, co-evolve and advance with others. If you look through this framework you may not see one defined picture. If you walk through it you will be amazed at the strange world on the other side. It is time to take back our lives. We ask you to join us now in New York City or to start your own General Assembly in your own town.
Let’s explore these “demands” one-by-one.
The British-based RobinHoodTax.org launched in February 2010. The organization’s slogan is very RahmEmanuelesque — “turning a global crisis into a global opportunity.”
The Robin Hood campaign, the site states, calls for a tax on the financial sector with “the power to raise hundreds of billions every year globally. It could give a vital boost to the NHS, our schools, and the fight against child poverty in the UK – as well as tackling poverty and climate change around the world.”
In response to the site’s question, “who is behind it?”, we find attribution to what cannot be characterized other than as a group of socialists and socialist organizations:
The Robin Hood Tax campaign started as an idea. People loved it. We became a movement. And we’re still growing.
We’re committed to reducing poverty and tackling climate change by taxing financial transactions.
We believe it’s time to rewrite the contract between banks and society.
We are charities, green groups, trade unions, celebrities, religious leaders and politicians.
We are world leaders – President Sarkozy of France, Chancellor Merkel of Germany, Prime Minister Zapatero of Spain, among others.
We are businesspeople – FSA Chairman Lord Turner, financier George Soros, entrepreneur extraordinaire Warren Buffet.
We are economists – Nobel Prize winners Joseph Stiglitz and Paul Krugman, Earth Institute Director Jeffrey Sachs and 1,000 other economists from across the world.
We are 256,000 Facebook friends, and tens of thousands of people taking action around the UK. We are over 115 organisations, including charities like Oxfam, Barnardo’s and Friends of the Earth, all the major trade unions and faith organisations such as the Salvation Army.
We are part of a movement of campaigns in more than 25 countries around the world with millions of supporters.
We are a force to be reckoned with, and we’re demanding justice.
It’s not surprising to find democratic socialist leaders calling for a Robin Hood Tax. Nor is it at all surprising to find the names George Soros and Warren Buffett here. Both are on record in February 2010 of supporting a Robin Hood Tax on banking transactions.
In February 2010, when the Robin Hood Tax campaign launched, Stiglitz backed the proposal:
[Stiglitz is] a backer of the campaign launched this week by charities for a Robin Hood tax on financial companies to reduce cuts in public services and assist the world’s poor. Taking 0.05% from world bankers’ transactions would raise £250 billion a year.
“The benefits are twofold,” he says. “In general, the tax philosophy should be to tax bad things rather than good — so pollution should be taxed more than work and savings.” And in Stiglitz’s eyes, much of what bankers get up to qualifies as pollution. “Very little social returns come from short-term trading. It results in extreme volatility and excessive trading. So anything that discourages short-termism is to be encouraged.
“At the same time, the money collected can be used to perform a socially useful function.
“Does anybody seriously believe that anything happens because of the sort of micro-second trading we’re now seeing? It’s a function of speed. No investments are being made as a result of it, no jobs are being created. Finance has a vital socially important role to fulfil, which is to raise capital, to run payment systems, to oil the wheels of everything society does. But the bankers fail to perform that socially useful function — and because of that, the world’s economy has suffered.”
The following month, Jeffrey Sachs wrote in the UK’s Guardian that the “Robin Hood tax’s time has come. Spending cuts are not the way out of the financial crisis – taxing financiers’ transactions is a fairer way to redistribute wealth.”
For those who do not know, both Joseph Stiglitz and Jeffrey Sachs have long-time ties to George Soros. It is unsurprising to find their names here, as well.
In April 2010, Stiglitz, Sachs, and Paul Krugman urged the G20 ministers to accept the Robin Hood Tax. All three backed a letter to the G20 asking the body “to impose a ‘Robin Hood tax’, which would emulate the English folk hero by robbing from the rich to give to the poor.”
Continue reading HERE…….
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In April 2010, Stiglitz, Sachs, and Paul Krugman urged the G20 ministers to accept the Robin Hood Tax. All three backed a letter to the G20 asking the body “to impose a ‘Robin Hood tax’, which would emulate the English folk hero by robbing from the rich to give to the poor.”
Paul Krugman posted a column in the New York Times yesterday (9/11) titled:
New York Times columnist Paul Krugman has taken the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terror attacks as an opportunity to slam former President George W. Bush and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani as “fake heroes” who “raced to cash in” on 9/11.
As America mourns and honors its murdered citizens, Krugman said the memory of 9/11 has become “an occasion for shame” and “the nation knows it.”
LINK
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As an Aside but may be tied into the above:
While your at it educate yourself on the Group of Thirty.
Knowledgeable
The Group of Thirty aims to deepen understanding of international economic and financial issues, to explore the international repercussions of decisions taken in the public and private sectors, and to examine the choices available to market practitioners and policymakers.
Influential
The work of the Group of Thirty impacts the current and future structure of the global financial system by delivering actionable recommendations directly to the private and public policymaking communities.
***Remember Obama talking about the Volcker Rule?*** GUESS WHO is the Chairman of the Group of Thirty?
- Paul A. Volcker
- Chairman of the Board of Trustees, Group of Thirty;
- Former Chairman, Federal Reserve System
- View Bio »
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****WORTH YOUR TIME TO READ: CLICK ON BLUE LETTERS BELOW**
***GEORGE SOROS AFFILIATIONS****
Excerpt:
Group of Thirty
The Group of Thirty aims to deepen understanding of international economic and financial issues, to explore the international repercussions of decisions taken in the public and private sectors, and to examine the choices available to market practitioners and policymakers.[16]
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