Tuesday, March 24, 2015

Why are people protesting Oakland?

Why are people protesting Oakland?
There is much confusion among financial executives as to what point the Oakland and other Occupy protesters are trying to make.

The Occupy people cannot seem to express it this way, but for the top 1% here is what it is about: Their issue is what economists call "moral hazard" (when one person takes a risk in search of a big reward but someone else is burdened by any negative consequences). Heads I win, tails you lose. It does not seem fair.

Lots of Wall Streeters got huge bonuses when their bets were looking good but did not lose any of those bonuses when it turned out the bets had actually been bad. Instead, taxpayers and ordinary company stockholders (401Ks, IRAs etc.) took the losses.

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