What is Occupy Wallstreet?

[kandrathe]

...

They [many of the protesters] are holding up signs saying their tuition is too high. From my own personal observations, many of these protesters are college age students. Do they know it's the privatized (non-government) banks that hold your loans for banks?

Actually, the government has mostly taken over the student loan business (subsidized and unsubsidized Stafford). They are mostly Direct Student Loans now. Parents can get PLUS loans from the government too, and as a last resort a student might consider a private student loan.


Some older data, but the trend is still true.* Non-Federal would include state based loan programs and private loans. Stafford and PLUS are entirely the Feds directly acting as the banker. Private loans tend to be used for private programs not approved under Title IV (e.g. the Cordon Blah cooking school, or Automotive Repair Academy).

* correction: The number of private loans has fallen markedly since this chart was made. For the 07-08 year, the number of private loans was down to ~13% of the total, and I would guess with the government take over of the student loan business and the tightening of lending, that the trend has continued.

And that you can go to an non-accredited school for like 1/100th of the cost? Are they complaining about the fee the government charges the schools to get accreditation, or the fees the [private] (non-government) universities charge for their schooling, which has nothing to do with the government... If their issue is with the schools themselves, or perhaps the teachers and their pay rates, then why protest against the government?

Most schools need to be accredited in order to participate in Title IV, and state based aid programs. Without that accreditation, and/or a huge endowment, a post-secondary institution would be hard pressed to compete for students. Our average discount rate is upwards of 36%, but we are competing with some places where the discount is 45-50% depending on SAT/ACT and secondary school characteristics.

Tuition rates are directly tied to the benefits the student receives in paying for the amenities they desire, maintenance of the buildings, and the wages of the staff and faculty. Our inflation rates is about 4-5% per year, and we are a not for profit institution. In my state, the colleges and universities affiliated with the government have experienced a higher inflation rate, more like 6-8%. Namely, heating, cooling, and technology are a big concern.

Perhaps their beef is with the banks that hold their student loans, but student loans are traditionally much lower than standard loans, and with current interest rates... WTF are they [student protesters] protesting about anyhow??? I don't get it!

Many of the student protesters in my area are the same ones who started protesting in the 60's. It's cool to be socially active, and it was for me, when I was young, energized and affiliated with the peace movement at my college. Although, we didn't protest. Instead, we would hold rallies, and we'd go meet with government officials to plead our position and ask for their help in supporting peace.

Seems like others in the crowd are/were protesting the way Congress can't seem to agree on anything in this lame-duck season.

And, how is this different from the past 20 years?

Again, others seem to be protesting bank fees and how your money is invested.

There is a direct relationship to bank fees and interest rates. Banks cannot make much money lending money, so they are moving more and more into fees. Interest rates are pegged to zero by the Federal Reserve. In the BI article linked to by Quark, they mention the interest paid for excess reserves... which is a complaint I voiced some months ago. This is a new policy enacted by Bernanke, and it has the direct consequence of allowing banks to earn money off the government and not lend it to "risky" ventures. There is an unholy alliance between the government (including Congress, the Executive, and Treasury), the Federal Reserve, and the banks. This alliance hurts corporations, small businesses, and individuals.

Others seem to be protesting the way Wallstreet runs, from hedge funds, to the system as a whole.

It's complicated. They don't understand it, so it must be evil. Grab your pitchfork...

And others seem to be protesting the government giving money to banks.

Well, not really giving... TARP needs to be repaid, and the government became the insurer of last resort for FDIC, and the Federal Reserve -- via the Treasury printing money to expand reserve currency. But, here is the weird part... How is this different than what the Tea Party was protesting in 2010 -- weren't they also against TARP, and against bailouts? But, yes, they differ in that the TP also wants to trim back the size of all government largess and subsequently reduce everyones taxes.

While these systems share the common thread of money, they couldn't be more separate in terms of who runs them. Just because the government regulates certain aspects of each of these institutions does not make them the owners of said institutions.

We're mad as hell and we're not going to take it anymore. Now, who is hateful that I can direct my anger toward? How about the evil Koch family? Yeah, they are hateful. They made a whole bunch of money speculating on oil prices being higher.

I understand being angry about specific policies and those who brought them about, but one of my "radical" friends who supports the "occupy" movement said, "Corporations are just the head of the snake." So, yup, I think it's time to gather the villagers and march on the castle. Dr. Frankenstein is up to his old tricks messing up the laws of the economy again.