Occupy K Street!

I think it's pretty big news when the President of the United States announces that all American troops who have been entangled in an eight-year foreign adventure of his predecessor's doing in Iraq will be home for Christmas. There are still questions about the role of Blackwater/Xe and other military contractors, but this is the fulfillment of a campaign promise by President Obama which many of us felt should have come much, much sooner. I have recognized how institutional concerns and Obama's own trepidation in dealing with the military-industrial powers-that-be have hampered these efforts. But here it is. It is major news. I applaud it. What's important, however, is what the contenders for the Republican nomination for office think about it—which will inevitably be the focus of all the Sunday political talk-shows. Oh, and what Sen. John McCain (R. Loser) and Lindsey Graham (R. So Closeted) feel about it. One hopes the resources to support this misbegotten war-like adventure can be put to better use rebuilding our own economy.

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The Occupy Wall Street/Occupy Everywhere/Occupy Together let's call it a 'movement' (this cycle's Move On?) is standing pat. Occupistas are occupying all over the Western world. Were I a commander of forces, I would shift focus a bit, especially in Washington, DC. "Occupy K Street" should be the mantra. Yes, corporate/financial control of the economy and hoarding is causing increasing misery among the 99% of Americans (and others) who are not hedge fund, Goldman Sachs, BoA, etc. affiliated. Calls for austerity, such as cutting back Social Security or Medicare or Veterans benefits, while bankster profits soar cannot stand. But the instrumentality of this control of the economy is the undue influence of MONEY on the law-making and regulatory (and enforcement, as well) processes of government. Money and influence filters into Congress and the Executive through the law firms, PR, and lobby shops of K Street. Break this supply chain link—Occupy K Street—and you stand a chance of making real, long-lasting democratizing effects on our politics and our economy.

Speaking of banksters, Bank of America is once again engaging in the should-be criminal act of privatizing profits and socializing losses. It is attempting to shift $55 trillion of potentially toxic debt exposure to risky Merrill Lynch derivatives from its investment side to its depositor, FDIC-insured side. Glass-Steagall, anyone?

That being said:

'A recent study of the global economy by three complex systems theorists at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich "combines the mathematics long used to model natural systems with comprehensive corporate data to map ownership among the world's transnational corporations," New Scientist reported.[1] -- It confirms that "a few bankers control a large chunk of the global economy..." '

Want to know what the top 50 organizations in this network are (using data as of 2007)?

THE TOP 50 OF THE 147 SUPERCONNECTED COMPANIES

 1. Barclays plc
 2. Capital Group Companies Inc
 3. FMR Corporation
 4. AXA
 5. State Street Corporation
 6. JP Morgan Chase & Co
 7. Legal & General Group plc
 8. Vanguard Group Inc9. UBS AG
 10. Merrill Lynch & Co Inc
 11. Wellington Management Co LLP
 12. Deutsche Bank AG
 13. Franklin Resources Inc
 14. Credit Suisse Group
 15. Walton Enterprises LLC
 16. Bank of New York Mellon Corp
 17. Natixis
 18. Goldman Sachs Group Inc
 19. T Rowe Price Group Inc
 20. Legg Mason Inc
 21. Morgan Stanley
 22. Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc
 23. Northern Trust Corporation
 24. Société Générale
 25. Bank of America Corporation
 26. Lloyds TSB Group plc
 27. Invesco plc
 28. Allianz SE
 29. TIAA
 30. Old Mutual Public Limited Company
 31. Aviva plc
 32. Schroders plc
 33. Dodge & Cox
 34. Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc*
 35. Sun Life Financial Inc
 36. Standard Life plc
 37. CNCE
 38. Nomura Holdings Inc
 39. The Depository Trust Company
 40. Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance
 41. ING Groep NV
 42. Brandes Investment Partners LP
 43. Unicredito Italiano SPA
 44. Deposit Insurance Corporation of Japan
 45. Vereniging Aegon
 46. BNP Paribas
 47. Affiliated Managers Group Inc
 48. Resona Holdings Inc
 49. Capital Group International Inc
 50. China Petrochemical Group Company
 * Lehman still existed in the 2007 dataset used

Research project: Who are the Hill and State lobbyists for these firms? What are the trade groups and organizations they support? Who are their law firms? What are their PACs and Super-PACs and 501(c)(4) organizations? Who do they pay to wine and dine and entice your Representatives and Senators and regulators and their staffs with campaign donations and contributions to their own PACs? These are their instrumentalities in the halls of power. These should be OCCUPIED!

Occupy K Street!