Under Capitalism, we need Wall Street

Slavoj Žižek, First as Tragedy, then as Farce (London: Verso, 2009), p. 14:

"The populist slogan 'Save Main Street, not Wall Street!' is thus totally misleading, a form of ideology at its purest: it overlooks the fact that what keeps Main Street going under capitalism is Wall Street! Tear that Wall down and Main Street will be flooded with panic and inflation."

11 Facts You Need To Know About The Nation’s Biggest Banks

http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2011/10/07/338887/1-facts-biggest-banks/

– Bank profits are highest since before the recession…: According to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., bank profits in the first quarter of this year were “the best for the industry [7] since the $36.8 billion earned in the second quarter of 2007.” JP Morgan Chase is currently pulling in record profits [8].

– …even as the banks plan thousands of layoffs: Banks, including Bank of America [9], Barclays [10], Goldman Sachs [11], and Credit Suisse [10], are planning to lay off tens of thousands of workers.

– Banks make nearly one-third of total corporate profits: The financial sector accounts for about 30 percent [12] of total corporate profits, which is actually downfrom before the financial crisis, when they made closer to 40 percent [13].

– Since 2008, the biggest banks have gotten bigger: Due to the failure of small competitors and mergers facilitated during the 2008 crisis, the nation’s biggest banks — including Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase, and Wells Fargo — are now bigger than they were pre-recession [14]. Pre-crisis, the four biggest banks held 32 percent of total deposits; now they hold nearly 40 percent [15].

– The four biggest banks issue 50 percent of mortgages and 66 percent of credit cards: Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase, Wells Fargo and Citigroup issue [14] one out of every two mortgages and nearly two out of every three credit cards in America.

– The 10 biggest banks hold 60 percent of bank assets: In the 1980s, the 10 biggest banks controlled 22 percent of total bank assets. Today, they control 60 percent [16].

– The six biggest banks hold assets equal to 63 percent of the country’s GDP: In 1995, the six biggest banks in the country held assets equal to about 17 percent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product. Now their assets equal 63 percent of GDP [17].

– The five biggest banks hold 95 percent of derivatives: Nearly the entire market in derivatives — the credit instruments that helped blow up some of the nation’s biggest banks as well as mega-insurer AIG — is dominated by just five firms [18]: JP Morgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, Citibank, and Wells Fargo.

– Banks cost households nearly $20 trillion in wealth: Almost $20 trillion in wealth [19] was destroyed by the Great Recession, and total family wealth is still down “$12.8 trillion [20] (in 2011 dollars) from June 2007 — its last peak.”

– Big banks don’t lend to small businesses: The New Rules Project notes that the country’s 20 biggest banks “devote only 18 percent [21] of their commercial loan portfolios to small business.”

– Big banks paid 5,000 bonuses of at least $1 million in 2008: According to the New York Attorney General’s office, “nine of the financial firms that were among the largest recipients of federal bailout money paid about 5,000 of their traders and bankers bonuses of more than $1 million apiece for 2008 [22].”

Kidney/liver disruption from genetically modified foods?

Please see the full report
http://www.enveurope.com/content/23/1/10
[....]
"We can conclude, from the regulatory tests performed today, that it is unacceptable to submit 500 million Europeans and several billions of consumers worldwide to the new pesticide GM-derived foods or feed, this being done without more controls (if any) than the only 3-month-long toxicological tests and using only one mammalian species, especially since there is growing evidence of concern (Tables 1 and 2). This is why we propose to improve the protocol of the 90-day studies to 2-year studies with mature rats, using the Toxotest approach, which should be rendered obligatory, and including sexual hormones assessment too. The reproductive, developmental, and transgenerational studies should also be performed. The new SSC statistical method of analysis is proposed in addition. This should not be optional if the plant is designed to contain a pesticide (as it is the case for more than 99% of cultivated commercialized GMOs), whilst for others, depending on the inserted trait, a case-by-case approach in the method to study toxicity will be necessary."

USA Voting Law Changes in 2012

These changes will benefit Republicans, and harm Democrats. See the full report at:
http://brennan.3cdn.net/9c0a034a4b3c68a2af_9hm6bj6d0.pdf

Leftists must have a substantial commitment

“Yes, but with Lenin it was always a substantial commitment. I always have a certain admiration for people who are aware that somebody has to do the job. What I hate about these liberal, pseudo-left, beautiful soul academics is that they are doing what they are doing fully aware that somebody else will do the job for them. For example, this goes to the absurd with many of my American friends who pretend to be left-wingers, anti-capitalist and so on, but who also play the stock market -- and so they secretly count on things functioning, on stocks and shares doing well, and so on.”

Slavoj Žižek, in Conversations with Žižek, by Slavoj Žižek and Glyn Daly (Polity Press, 2004, p. 50).

I would engage the world as my ally
I would engage the world
Against jealous fear and bitter ambition
That only aspires to the done and the dead
I went down to the sea
I don't care if you don't believe me
It spoke to me about my life
It spoke with the voice of reason
It told me to risk it all with the chance of nothing returned
Isn't that the task of love?
Isn't that the challenge of love today?
I went down to the sea
I don't care if you don't believe me
It spoke to me about my life
It spoke with the voice of reason
It told me to risk it all with the chance of nothing returned
Why do we make it so hard?
Why live our lives in distance?
Why do we make it so hard?
I thought life should be a chance to defeat statistics
I thought life should be a chance
And if sometimes I dont pursue it
The sea speaks my better half...