Occupy Wall Street Occupy Movement

Occupy Wall Street (OWS) was a protest movement that began in September, 2011 in the financial district of New York City. The movement focused on economic inequality, greed and corruption of the political establishment and big corporations; in-turn inspiring millions world-wide in what came to be known as the Occupy Movement. Although the movement achieved no direct results in the form of policy, OWS was able to initiate a crucial discussion about inequality, greed and corruption in economic and democratic life. By examining the emergence, impact and implications of OWS one can see how this movement rallied millions and began to create a new dialogue on societal life.

The Occupy movement was born in frustration due to inequality, greed and

Wall Street, in collusion with Washington by means of campaign financing and political donations, has been deregulating financial markets since the 80s in order to benefit themselves. Profiting from riskier and more corrupt behaviour, the relationship between Wall Street and Washington became cosier in the belief what was good for Wall Street was good for Main Street (Giltin, 2011 p.7, 10, 11). The American public began to exert their feelings of frustration with the occurrence of The Global Financial Crisis (GFC). Pointing the finger largely at Wall Street, Americans blamed the greed and corruption of financial institutions for inciting the crisis. The feelings of distain were only further enhanced when tax payer bailouts saved Wall Street from a problem that was essentially self-created. The post GFC world saw the American economy stagnate, as unemployment soared and economic growth dwindled. People began to believe Wall Street had learned nothing from the meltdown of 2008 as financiers continued to receive hefty salaries and bonuses, while aggressive lobbying killed any reform preventing such crisis from occurring again (Jihong, 2011). The majority of Americans continued to struggle after the GFC, however, Wall Street continued to carry on as if everything was well in American life. The disconnect began to boil and with no political changes to remedy the problem for the American people their energy was set ablaze into a movement known as Occupy Wall