“The rich believe that they're different and that it is their right to pay a much lower tax rate. The response that you see from people on Wall Street, their dismissal and their almost contempt for the concerns about their culpability in the financial crisis, about the income inequality, shows that they are completely out of touch.” PeopleBelieveDifferentShowsPayRichStreetsWallTaxesConcernCrisisResponseRateFinancialIncomeInequalityContemptFinancial CrisisIncome InequalityDismissalCulpability Author:Robin Wells
“I think that will only really change when the human races begins to suffer some of the extremely severe consequences of climate change which may be some decades ahead. They will then realise, as we have with the financial crisis, that we are up against the wall and hitting the buffers and we have got to change.” ThinkingHumansMaySufferingRaceWallConsequenceCrisisClimateClimate ChangeFinancialDecadesHuman RaceRealisingHittingSevereFinancial Crisis Author:Michael Meacher
“The single most remarkable (and revealing) fact of the Obama presidency may very well be the lack of a single prosecution of Wall Street executives for the massive fraud that precipitated the 2008 financial crisis.” WellsMayFactsStreetsWallCrisisFinancialRemarkableExecutivesMassiveFraudPresidencyRevealingFinancial CrisisProsecution Author:Glenn Greenwald
“The dirty little secret of what used to be known as Wall Street securities firms-Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch, Lehman Brothers, and Bear Stearns-was that every one of them funded their business in this way to varying degress, and every one of them was always just twenty-four hours away from a funding crisis. The key to day-to-day survival was the skill with which Wall Street executives managed their firms' ongoing reputation in the marketplace.” WayLittlesUsedHoursSecretKnownFourStreetsSecurityBrotherWallKeysBearsSkillsSurvivalTwentiesCrisisReputationUsed To BeDirtyFirmExecutivesDay To DayOngoingFundingMarketplaceStanleyGoldman SachsLehman Brothers Author:William D. Cohan
“The financial services industry has seemed to treat the crisis like a little rainfall - inconvenient, but no significant changes needed. The real question moving forward is how the industry will respond to Wall Street reform and growing public anger.” LittlesRealMovingGrowingStreetsWallIndustryNeededTreatsCrisisFinancialSignificantMoving ForwardReformInconvenientReal QuestionsRainfallSignificant ChangeFinancial ServicesService Industry Author:Elizabeth Warren
“Wall Street is not being made a scapegoat for this crisis: they really did this.” MadeStreetsWallCrisisScapegoat Author:Michael Lewis
“That Wall Street has gone down because of this is justice ... They built a castle to rip people off. Not once in all these years have I come across a person inside a big Wall Street firm who was having a crisis of conscience.” PeopleYearsPersonsBigsJusticeGoneStreetsWallConscienceBuiltCrisisFirmCastlesRip Author:Steve Eisman
“Joe Biden says the Wall Street crisis is the result of George W. Bush's tax cuts, which makes as much sense as blaming the rising price of fairy dust. But as a wise man once asked, Who gives a rat's patoot what Joe Biden thinks?” ThinkingMenGivingResultsWiseCuttingStreetsWallTaxesCrisisBlameDustRisingFairyRatsTax CutsBidenFairy DustRising Prices Author:Jonah Goldberg
“Capitalism, the ogre of those protesting Wall Street, has suffered a public relations crisis in the wake of the global economic collapse. But any remedy to the systemic corruption that led to the collapse should not displace recognition that capitalism creates wealth. Capitalism, and no other economic system, has raised millions from poverty around the world.” WorldShouldWealthPovertyMillionsEconomicStreetsWallCapitalismRelationCrisisRaisedCorruptionAround The WorldRecognitionCollapseRemedyPublic RelationsEconomic SystemsEconomic Collapse Author:Kathleen Parker
“From the beginning, we failed to overcome Europe's division. The Berlin Wall fell, but invisible walls were moved to the East of Europe. This has led to mutual misunderstandings and assignments of guilt. They are the cause of all crises ever since.” CausesWallEuropeOvercomingCrisisMovedGuiltEastInvisibleMutualDivisionMisunderstandingBerlinAssignmentsBerlin Wall Author:Vladimir Putin
“There are many major crises facing our country. At the top of the list is the need to overturn Citizens United. If billionaires are able to buy elections and elect right-wing candidates, there is no way we will ever address climate change, college education, affordability, job creation, raising the minimum wage and taking on Wall Street.” IfsWayNeedsCountryAbleJobsUnitedStreetsCreationCollegeWallCitizensMajorsElectionCrisisWingsClimateClimate ChangeListsOur CountryCandidatesAddressesMinimumRight WingBillionaireMinimum WageCollege EducationJob CreationCitizens UnitedAffordability Author:Bernie Sanders
“Let's stop for a second and remember where we were eight years ago [in 2008]. We had the worst financial crisis, the Great Recession, the worst since the 1930s. That was in large part because of tax policies that slashed taxes on the wealthy, failed to invest in the middle class, took their eyes off of Wall Street, and created a perfect storm.” YearsEyeRememberPerfectClassStreetsMiddleWorstPolicyWallTaxesYears AgoCrisisFinancialEightStormMiddle ClassWealthyRecessions1930sFinancial CrisisGreat RecessionPerfect Storm Author:Hillary Clinton
“When I was a Senator from New York, I represented and worked with so many talented principled people who made their living in finance. But even thought I represented them and did all I could to make sure they continued to prosper, I called for closing the carried interest loophole and addressing skyrocketing CEO pay. I also was calling in '06, '07 for doing something about the mortgage crisis, because I saw every day from Wall Street literally to main streets across New York how a well-functioning financial system is essential.” PeopleWellsMadeInterestPaySawsStreetsNew YorkWallCallingEssentialsCrisisFinancialFinanceSenatorsCeoClosingMortgageLoopholesPrincipledFinancial SystemMain StreetMortgage Crisis Author:Hillary Clinton
“Here's Hillary Clinton getting away with tying the Republicans to rich people. She's tying the Republican Party to Wall Street, to the big banks. She's tying the Republican Party to the financial crisis in 2008. It's all their fault. She's tying herself as with the low-income crowd - and the average, ordinary middle class American - as their champion, as their defender. They don't know that it's not the Republicans in bed with banks. They don't know that it's the banks that are practically paying for and underwriting the Democrat Party and Hillary Clinton today.” PeopleKnowsBigsTodayPartyClassRichStreetsMiddleWallRepublicanBedLowsOrdinaryCrisisFaultsClintonDemocratFinancialAverageCrowdsIncomeChampionMiddle ClassGet AwayRepublican PartyRich PeopleDefendersFinancial CrisisLow Income Author:Rush Limbaugh
“Henry Blodget says, "It is not clear what, if any, power and influence [Steven Lerner] currently wields. His main message - that Wall Street won the financial crisis, that inequality in this country is hitting record levels, and that there appears to be no other way to stop the trend - will almost certainly resonate."” IfsWayCountryLevelsClearRecordsInfluenceStreetsWallMessagesCrisisFinancialInequalityWhat IfTrendsHittingFinancial Crisis Author:Rush Limbaugh
“We need more responsibility, but we need it not just when there's a crisis. I mean, we've had years in which the reigning economic ideology has been what's good for Wall Street, but not what's good for Main Street.” MeanResponsibilityEconomicWallCrisisIdeology Author:Barack Obama
“I actually think history doesn't repeat itself. There are recurrent themes, but they're repeated with variations. Each time there's an immigration crisis, a threat from outside which is met with inhospitable wall building, it's different. And I think it's helpful to notice the big patterns in history, but it's also important to pay attention to the details, which makes each situation distinct from another.” ThinkingImportantDifferentAttentionSituationBuildingWallCrisisThreatImmigrationPay AttentionHelpful Author:Lucy Hughes-Hallett
“This debt crisis coming to our country. The wall and tidal wave of debt that is befalling our nation. Medicare and Social Security go bankrupt within ten years, we have a debt that is looming so high that in the last year of President Obama's budget just the interest payments on our debt is $916 billion dollars.” YearsCountryLastsNationsSocialPresidentInterestSecurityWallTenCrisisDollarsWaveDebtBillionsOur CountryBudgetsPresident ObamaLast YearSocial SecurityPaymentMedicareLoomingTidal WavesDebt Crisis Author:Paul Ryan
“'Nobody goes to jail.' This is the mantra of the financial-crisis era, one that saw virtually every major bank and financial company on Wall Street embroiled in obscene criminal scandals that impoverished millions and collectively destroyed hundreds of billions, in fact, trillions of dollars of the world's wealth - and nobody went to jail.” WorldFactsWealthCompanyMillionsSawsStreetsWallMajorsCrisisDollarsFinancialCriminalsBillionsDestroyedErasJailScandalMantrasObsceneFinancial Crisis Author:Matt Taibbi
“By creating an urgent crisis that can only be solved by those fluent in a language too complex for ordinary people to understand, the Wall Street crowd has turned the vast majority of Americans into non-participants in their own political future.” PeoplePoliticalLanguageStreetsWallCreatingOrdinaryCrisisMajorityComplexesCrowdsOrdinary PeopleUrgentParticipantsFluent Author:Matt Taibbi
“Art is the heart's explosion on the world. Music. Dance. Poetry. Art on cars, on walls, on our skins. There is probably no more powerful force for change in this uncertain and crisis-ridden world than young people and their art. It is the consciousness of the world breaking away from the strangle grip of an archaic social order.” PeopleWorldHeartArtYoungPoetryOrderForceSocialChangePowerfulConsciousnessMusicPowerCarWallArt IsSkinsCrisisDanceUncertaintyUncertainExplosionsSocial OrderWorld MusicStranglingBreaking Away Author:Luis J. Rodriguez
“Today, no walls can separate humanitarian or human rights crises in one part of the world from national security crises in another. What begins with the failure to uphold the dignity of one life all too often ends with a calamity for entire nations.” WorldHumansEndsTodayNationsRightsSecurityWallDignityCrisisHuman RightsHumanitarianNational SecurityCalamityNigeria Independence Author:Kofi Annan