'Occupy Wall Street' mentality is the problem with Wall Street

The US political system is massively corrupt and the banks and corporations have far too much power. The problem is that they create monopolies which disrupt the free market. The members of the super committee responsible for oversight of deficit reduction have received more than $41million from the financial sector during their time in Congress and of their aides, at least 27 have been financial services lobbyists. The corporations and their political slaves, including Obama (who in '08 took more money from hedge-fund and bank employees than any other group) deserve to face a revolt. But it is the left in America that supports the "monopolistic capitalism" of Wall Street, propping up failing institutions with hand outs, endless faux-Keynesian contracts, or giving "$3.3 trillion in bailout money to overseas corporations without asking what the cash was for." If the free market was actually allowed to be a free market, then bailouts wouldn't be needed and irresponsibility wouldn't be rewarded. Left wing meddling props the whole system up.

These protesters aren't interested in sound policy; they are the same kind of hypocrites that rioted here over tuition fees. They are summed up well by the photograph of the woman posing next to her "corporate freeloaders" sign for a photo on a flashy new iPad. "Never trust the political rhetoric of young white hippies: it is undermined by their fabulous wealth and their complete detachment from reality. They travel the world from riot to riot – a cause on every continent, a ring in every orifice. They might have the diet of a North African peasant, but these spoiled brats are professional agitators financed by a generous trust fund." (Tim Stanley, Telegraph, 3rd Oct 2011)

The problem wasn't too little regulation; it was the propping up of a corrupt corporate and political system. But what these protesters want is yet more meddling and more splashing of cash. Capitalism works best when it's allowed to get on with it.