Subscribe to Dollars & Sense magazine. Recent articles related to the financial crisis. Wall Street and the Return of the RepressedFrom TomDispatch.com; hat-tip to Claire for this one.The Specter of Wall Street Wall Street's Comeback as the Place Americans Love to Hate By Steve Fraser Wall Street sits at the eye of a political hurricane. Its enemies converge from every point on the compass. What a stunning turn of events. For well more than half a century Wall Street has enjoyed a remarkable political immunity, but matters were not always like that. Now, with history marching forward in seven league boots, we are about to revisit a time when the Street functioned as the country's lightning rod, attracting its deepest animosities and most passionate desires for economic justice and democracy. For the better part of a century, from the 1870s through the tumultuous years of the Great Depression and the New Deal, the specter of Wall Street haunted the popular political imagination. For Populists it was the "Great Satan," its stranglehold over the country's credit system being held responsible for driving the family farmer to the edge of extinction and beyond. Read the rest of the article. Labels: bailout, financial crisis, Steve Fraser, TomDispatch.com, Wall Street Please consider donating to Dollars & Sense and/or subscribing to the magazine (both print and e-subscriptions now available!). |
