We stand together or fall alone - CWA Local 1180
We stand together or fall alone - CWA Local 1180
We stand together or fall alone - CWA Local 1180
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4 J u l y /Au g u s t ’11<br />
C o m m u n i q u e<br />
Wild, Wild Wall Street and the Old <strong>We</strong>st<br />
By Dan Cunningham<br />
People of the Old <strong>We</strong>st took<br />
a real dim view of thievery,<br />
fraud, pilfering, chicanery<br />
and cheating. Why, Wyatt Earp<br />
arrested men just f<strong>or</strong> cheating at<br />
cards. And what do you think Doc<br />
Holliday did when he caught some<br />
dirty polecat double dealing? <strong>We</strong>ll,<br />
suffice it to say that dead men tell<br />
no tales. Nothing rankled folk m<strong>or</strong>e<br />
than cheating and stealing. Those<br />
cowboys, ranchers and prospect<strong>or</strong>s<br />
foolish enough to gamble hardearned<br />
money would let loose with<br />
lead if they got an inkling that the<br />
game weren’t on the level.<br />
As reckless, lawless, and violent as<br />
things sometimes got back then, most<br />
of the early settlers yearned f<strong>or</strong> law,<br />
justice, and a peaceful way of life. But<br />
too often, the law was too far away<br />
and too slow to respond when folks<br />
needed protection. Those with the<br />
fastest guns, <strong>or</strong> the most hired gunslingers,<br />
usually got their way. Claim<br />
jumpers, cattle rustlers, and h<strong>or</strong>se<br />
thieves abounded—killing, looting<br />
and stealing. It was left to men like the<br />
Earp brothers (and company) to keep<br />
the peace. Hist<strong>or</strong>y will disclose that<br />
the likes of the Earp brothers and Doc<br />
Holliday were fatally flawed heroes,<br />
but they lived by a code. They drew a<br />
line in the sand; and when the likes of<br />
the Clanton Gang and the Tombstone<br />
desperadoes stepped too far over<br />
that line, threatening innocent men,<br />
women and children, they evened the<br />
sc<strong>or</strong>e with Colt .45 peacemakers and<br />
sawed-off shotguns.<br />
Wall Street outlaws<br />
So the st<strong>or</strong>y goes. <strong>We</strong>’ve all heard<br />
the tales of our bygone western<br />
frontier, and seen the Hollywood<br />
images of noble American cowboys<br />
and maverick lawmen <strong>stand</strong>ing<br />
against c<strong>or</strong>rupt cattle barons. Even<br />
if these frontier tales contain m<strong>or</strong>e<br />
fabrication than fact , the image of<br />
the cowboy, m<strong>or</strong>e than any other,<br />
has been branded into the American<br />
psyche as a symbol of what an<br />
American should be—a self-reliant,<br />
unregulated, free-spirited, rugged<br />
individualist who abides by a strict<br />
code of behavi<strong>or</strong>. And since few hist<strong>or</strong>y<br />
books will dispute that western<br />
frontier society skirted the line<br />
between savagery and civilization,<br />
far be it f<strong>or</strong> me to debunk the image<br />
of the great American cowboy<br />
Today the lawlessness and recklessness<br />
of the Old<br />
<strong>We</strong>st has been reincarnated<br />
on Wall<br />
Street. Big banks and<br />
investment houses<br />
encourage and reward<br />
all manner of thievery,<br />
larceny, cheating, piracy,<br />
and perfidy. The<br />
greed and gluttony<br />
of over-the-counter<br />
derivative traders,<br />
subprime loan pushers,<br />
and investment<br />
firm executives run<br />
rampant. They have<br />
conned invest<strong>or</strong>s,<br />
created a nation of<br />
debt<strong>or</strong>s, and cowed the regulat<strong>or</strong>y<br />
bodies responsible f<strong>or</strong> keeping our<br />
financial system on the level. The<br />
Bank of America Gang, Goldman<br />
Sachs Gang, JP M<strong>or</strong>gan Gang, et al,<br />
have stolen our wealth, cheated us<br />
out of our assets, and wreaked havoc<br />
on the American economy. These<br />
desperadoes don’t draw six-guns and<br />
brandish repeating rifles to get their<br />
way. Now the hired gunslingers come<br />
from Ivy League business and law<br />
schools. They carry out their banditry<br />
with toxic financial products such<br />
as collateral debt obligations, credit<br />
default swaps, and exotic subprime<br />
m<strong>or</strong>tgages with artificially low interest<br />
rates. Sound complicated?<br />
Wild Wall Street didn’t evolve naturally<br />
over the ages like the frontiers<br />
of our own Wild <strong>We</strong>st. It grew from<br />
seeds planted only decades ago by<br />
the high priests of deregulation,<br />
mostly Republicans. Richard Nixon<br />
and Ronald Reagan made gutting of<br />
government oversight a constant<br />
battle cry of their administrations.<br />
Cultivated by greed, millions of dollars<br />
in c<strong>or</strong>p<strong>or</strong>ate campaign contributions<br />
and chronic lobbying by Wall<br />
Street and the big banks, the seeds<br />
of lawlessness took root. Little by<br />
little, the laws regulating banking<br />
and Wall Street grew weaker and<br />
weaker. Ironically, it was a Democrat<br />
who helped open the floodgates and<br />
set the stage f<strong>or</strong> the largest-ever c<strong>or</strong>p<strong>or</strong>ate<br />
crime wave. Seduced by the<br />
siren song of deregulation and battered<br />
by a Republican maj<strong>or</strong>ity in the<br />
House, Bill Clinton signed into law<br />
the Graham-Leach-Bliley Financial<br />
Services Modernization Act in 1999.<br />
With a stroke of his pen, he revoked<br />
the safeguards of<br />
the Glass Steagall<br />
Act, obliterating the<br />
dividing line between<br />
banks and investment<br />
firms.<br />
And then there<br />
was Bush, hog-tying<br />
WALL<br />
STREET<br />
Elizabeth Warren: new sheriff?<br />
the regulat<strong>or</strong>y agencies,<br />
and allowing the<br />
financial barons to<br />
take full control. They<br />
stole billions from<br />
the middle class and<br />
created a counterfeit<br />
economy based on<br />
nothing but phony<br />
financial products<br />
designed to rope in new suckers to<br />
keep the schemes going. Of course,<br />
the fake Ponzi-scheme economics<br />
failed, and the whole house came<br />
crashing down in 2008.<br />
A glimmer of hope<br />
Even now, in the desert wasteland<br />
they created, billionaire bankers<br />
and Wall Street vultures are circling<br />
low over the carcass of the very<br />
middle class that bailed them out.<br />
Having feasted on our very essence,<br />
they want to suck the last bit of<br />
meat from our bones: our pensions,<br />
Social Security, health care, and<br />
decent wages.<br />
It’s “Solidarity F<strong>or</strong>ever” and who is that guy in the middle?<br />
Eventually, the Wild <strong>We</strong>st got<br />
tamed. Even the most murderous<br />
and violent gangs—The Dooling-<br />
Daltons, the Hole in the Wall Gang,<br />
the Wild Bunch, Billy the Kid, and the<br />
James Gang were broken up and rent<br />
asunder—their members gunned<br />
down, hung, stuck in the hoosegow,<br />
<strong>or</strong> driven to parts unknown. Their<br />
inevitable demise was no doubt hastened<br />
by the fact that they committed<br />
their larceny against banks, railroads<br />
and stagecoach lines, people with<br />
power, influence and money.<br />
There is a glimmer of hope. From<br />
across the far h<strong>or</strong>izon a lone rider<br />
on a pale h<strong>or</strong>se approaches. Her<br />
name is Elizabeth Warren and she<br />
sits astride the new Consumer<br />
Financial Protection Bureau, a<br />
watchdog agency created to protect<br />
against risky m<strong>or</strong>tgages and unregulated<br />
credit agreements. Tapped<br />
by President Obama to set up the<br />
new agency, she comes a-toting<br />
the big-gun reputation of dogged<br />
consumer advocate with a Harvard<br />
Law profess<strong>or</strong>ship in her holster.<br />
Time will tell if she will be the new<br />
economic sheriff. The black hats on<br />
Capitol Hill (Republicans, mostly)<br />
are already laying an ambush, stalling<br />
a vote on her nomination.<br />
Time will tell whether she has the<br />
right stuff to rest<strong>or</strong>e law and <strong>or</strong>der<br />
on this frontier, <strong>or</strong> if the efficacy of<br />
American financial institutions will<br />
bite the dust f<strong>or</strong>ever.<br />
Lab<strong>or</strong> Ch<strong>or</strong>us at membership meeting<br />
Gary schoichet