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A decade after the Occupy Wall Street Movement

Published : Friday, 21 May, 2021 at 12:00 AM  Count : 900

A decade after the Occupy Wall Street Movement

A decade after the Occupy Wall Street Movement

In today's world occupying the market of money, capital, products and services are preferable to occupying land and territories. Because taking physical control over the geographical location is more costly, risky and full of hassles. On the other hand, in today's ICT-based high-tech world taking control over the economy and market of a country is easier, requires less investment of time energy and money. Money is everything and this motto has been fully implemented in today's world. Earning money and taking control over the economy, market, trade and commerce are dominating over morality, honesty, religious belief, social responsibility, environmental safety and many more.

Almost a decade has passed since the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement against economic inequality was started in New York City's Wall Street financial district in September 2011. It triggered a wider Occupy movement in the United States and other countries. The initiators behind that movement were Canadian anti-consumerist and pro-environment groups/magazine 'Adbusters'. The key issues raised by Occupy Wall Street were social and economic inequality, greed, corruption and the undue influence of corporations on government- particularly from the financial services sector.

In its manifesto, the movement also claimed that- it is fighting back against the destructive power of major banks and multinational corporations over the democratic process, and the role of Wall Street in creating an economic collapse that has caused the greatest recession in generations. The OWS slogan, 'We are the 99%', refers to income and wealth inequality in the U.S. between the wealthiest 1% and the rest of the population.

Throughout the first decade of the 21st century, there had been some critical financial crises and a major economic recession that worked as a catalyst and gave a rise to the Occupy Wallstreet movement. Especially the fiscal crisis of 2008 brought attention to the problems with the economy of the USA and also with the world's economy. The gradual mounting of the income gap materialized the wealth inequalities in the USA as well as all over the world. As a result, the rich were getting richer; the poor were getting poorer and the middle class was all but disappearing and this scenario is continuing.

Wall Street is the most important financial center in the world. In terms of land area, this place consists of only a few blocks that amount to less than a mile in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. Nevertheless, this is a business where cut-throat capitalism is practiced. This place has undisputedly been recognized as the place that has an enduring impact not just on the American economy, but on the global one. This includes the biggest investment banks, commercial banks, hedge funds, mutual funds, asset management firms, insurance companies, broker-dealers, currency and commodity traders, financial institutions, and so on. It has the trading hub of the biggest financial markets in the world's richest nation. Most of the international trade payments, equivalent to trillions of Dollars, are routed through Wall Street. Wall Street is home to the esteemed New York Stock Exchange, which is the undisputed leader worldwide in terms of average daily share trading volume and total market capitalization of its listed companies. Moreover, the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, the second-largest exchange globally, also has its headquarters on Wall Street.

But how much that domination of Wall Street has been changed throughout the decade after the OWS Movement? Changes may not be very much significant, but we have witnessed an irresistible power shift where the West and the USA are in steep decline. However, it might take one or two decades to become visible. But due to the COVID-19 pandemic and many other unpredictable pandemic or disaster in the future, the pace of power shift might become faster than ever.

Due to various desperate and unscrupulous financing and highly speculative and dreadful financial derivative Wall Street has some big criticisms. First of all, it is considered as a rigged market where a person or company causes a price to be more favorable to an investor than market forces justify. Wall Street has created a model of business that encourages skewed risk-taking which is highly speculative and one kind of gambling. It is widely believed that such kind of excessive risk-taking had contributed to the meltdown in mortgage-backed securities in 2008-09. Moreover, it has created a gambling attitude among the business and investors for becoming richer overnight.

In 2002 Warren Buffett warned that the derivatives developed by Wall Street might be the financial weapons of mass destruction. Derivatives are widely regarded as a tool of speculation. This tool is extremely risky in nature and highly unpredictable in behavior. As a result, unreasonable and desperate speculation may lead to huge losses. If anyone invests in stock, it might take seven or more years to double the money. But with derivatives, it is possible to double the money in a week. As an inevitable consequence the U.S. housing melt-down when mortgage-backed securities went into free-fall. In this way, Wall Street could bring the world economy to its knees or a big recession at any time as we found in 2008-09.

As we know, the key issues raised by Occupy Wall Street were social and economic inequality, greed, corruption and the undue influence of corporations on government. So, the transformation of domination, shifting of economic powerhouses and shifting of driving forces of the economy are not the matters to be considered. Despite doubts of some financial analysts, mighty China might overtake the USA by 2028 which is 5 years earlier than it was expected earlier due to the long persisting Corona pandemic. This century is going to be the regaining of the economic superiority of Asia where many immerging economic tigers are going to the upper-middle-income nation by 2035. As an inevitable consequence, the domination of Wall Street is also going to be declined within the next 10 to 15 years. Then what might be the look of the world economy, the status of wealth inequalities, the behaviors of economic superpowers- only time will say.
Noore Alam Siddiqui is banker and column








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