An Investment Manager's View on the Top 1%

[norton ash]

I think back on things like occupied campuses, closing highways and airports, marches on Paris and Washington, the European Red Brigades.

Weren't they something?

[Peachtree Pam]

Dow down over 300.


BNY Mellon to Slap Fees on Some Big Deposits Amid Global Race to Cash

Applies to accounts of over 50 million.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142 ... lenews_wsj

[justdrew]

[Bruce Dazzling]

[gnosticheresy_2]

Fuck the politically minded, here's something I want to say,
About the state of nation, the way it treats us today.
At school they give you shit, drop you in the pit,
You try, you try, you try to get out, but you can't because they've fucked you about.
Then you're a prime example of how they must not be,
This is just a sample of what they've done to you and me.

Do they owe us a living?
Of course they do, of course they do.
Owe us a living?
Of course they do, of course they do.
Owe us a living?
OF COURSE THEY FUCKING DO.

Don't want me anymore, cos I threw it on the floor.
Used to call me sweet thing, I'm nobody's plaything,
And now that I am different, 'd love to bust my head,
You'd love to see me cop-out, 'd love to see me dead.

Do they owe us a living?
Of course they do, of course they do.
Owe us a living?
Of course they do, of course they do.
Owe us a living?
OF COURSE THEY FUCKING DO.

The living that is owed to me I'm never going to get,
They've buggered this old world up, up to their necks in debt.
They'd give you a lobotomy for something you ain't done,
They'll make you an epitomy of everything that's wrong.

Do they owe us a living?
Of course they do, of course they do.
Owe us a living?
Of course they do, of course they do.
Owe us a living?
OF COURSE THEY FUCKING DO.

Don't take any notice of what the public think,
They're so hyped up with T.V., they just don't want to think.
They'll use you as a target for demands and for advice,
When you don't want to hear it they'll say you're full of vice.

Do they owe us a living?
Of course they do, of course they do.
Owe us a living?
Of course they do, of course they do.
Owe us a living?
OF COURSE THEY FUCKING DO.

[hanshan]

..

...

I think back on things like occupied campuses, closing highways and airports, marches on Paris and Washington, the European Red Brigades.

Weren't they something?

Indeed. Heady times...




http://forums.canadiancontent.net/international-politics/73841-my-part-french-revolution-london.html

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/3672497/May-68-when-the-best-weapons-were-made-of-paper.html


May '68: when the best weapons were made of paper

Posters were a potent symbol of the Paris unrest, says Sue Steward

Sue Steward
12:01AM BST 12 Apr 2008


In 1968, students - and their teachers - took to the streets of Paris, then took over the streets, using paving stones as blockades in elegant arrondissements.
But their most potent weapons were made of paper: angry posters featuring witty slogans and simple graphic images which survive to this day as eloquent reminders of their struggle. Next month, 46 will go on display for the first time at the Hayward Gallery in London, to mark the 40th anniversary of that struggle.
The posters follow the Russian Constructivist tradition, finding a precedent in the work of Alexander Rodchenko, whose pairing of original typography and bold image had helped convince his nation's population of the benefits of a Soviet lifestyle (only to be betrayed by it).
The art works produced in Parisian ateliers were similarly cheaply made, but brighter, artisticially simpler, single-coloured silk-screen prints made to adorn city and college walls, student bedrooms and, crucially, the walls around striking factories. "Le meme probleme, le meme lutte" ("The same problem, the same struggle") reads one poster, representing solidarity between students and workers. It features two cartoon figures - the worker in dungarees, the student in a roll-neck sweater - in a previously unimaginable alliance.
Factories were a key motif; their angular structures lending themselves to stylised representation (even, in one case, being converted into a clenched fist). In one poster, beneath the legend "Soutien aux usines occupees pour la victoire du peuple" ("Support the occupied factories for the victory of the people") ranks of workers gather in the shadow of a factory, evoking a scene from Emile Zola's Germinal half a century earlier. President Charles de Gaulle, was another favourite target: his extreme features lent themselves to caricature.
Despite the simplicity of these posters, their graphic effects and direct slogans remain highly effective. But, 40 years on, these classic images without provenance or author, sit oddly in a money-flooded art market. Even Banksy - perhaps the closest we have to a contemporary equivalent of these Parisian artists who spread their message through images displayed on the street - has a gallerist and a bank manager. The original '68ers would not have been impressed.


'May '68: Street Posters from the Paris Rebellion' is at the Hayward Gallery Project Space, London SE1 (020 7960 5226) from May 1.

http://www.eskimo.com/~recall/bleed/0510.htm


1968 -- France: Latin Quarter of Paris is barricaded: Night of the Barricades. Militant resistance to authority truly begins in earnest.
The week of May 6-13 in France saw the seizure of all of France's universities & many lycées (secondary schools). Police entered the campuses for the first time in the 20th century, the first time (except for the Nazi occupation) that the autonomy of the university was violated.
People all over Paris witness the savagery of the police & are sickened by the system's dependence on force to maintain order. On May 8, after nearly a week of riots, the French public opinion poll IFOP reports that four-fifths of the people of Paris are sympathetic to the rebellious students.
Several thousand young pupils marched through Paris with placards:

'Tomorrow we shall have the same problem'


From the very start of the evening, 20,000 demonstrators occupy the Latin Quarter, which takes an insurrectionary aspect. Students & youth built dozens & dozens of cobblestone ramparts to defend the Latin Quarter. The previous night Action Committees had conducted strategy meetings throughout the Latin Quarter. Over 60 barricades — some over 10 feet high — were built from overturned cars, sawed-down trees, lampposts, & anything else at hand.

Beyond Paris the movement is now supported all over France. The students refuse police demands & the CRS attacks the first barricades of the street Gay-Lussac, which they are unable to take for three hours, leaving over 350 wounded (including 251 police officers). 469 of the insurrectionaries are arrested.



Night of riot in the Quartier Latin: police assault 60 barricades.
367 are hospitalized of which 251 are police; 720 others hurt & 468 arrested. 60 Cars are burned & 188 are damaged.
The Minister of Education says of the protesters, "Ni doctrine, ni foi, ni loi."




1968 -- France: During this night of the barricades in Paris, Léo Ferré creates his now-famous song "The Anarchists".

This verse translates, to a certain extent, the surprise of close observers of the rebirth of the black flag at the time of the demonstrations & the processions of May.
10 mai 68 Barricades dans le quartier Latin, attaquées vers 2 heures du matin
par les CRS.
'Night of the barricades', Paris: The return of the repressed, as revolution reappears in the heart of the smug consumer democracies of the west.

http://raforum.info/article.php3?id_article=855&lang=en

http://www.leo-ferre.com/

http://www.rockdiscography.com/list/france/ferreleo.html

edited once to flesh out the pic
edited again to add May '68 pic

...

[Joe Hillshoist]

Fuck the politically minded, here's something I want to say,
About the state of nation, the way it treats us today.
At school they give you shit, drop you in the pit,
You try, you try, you try to get out, but you can't because they've fucked you about.
Then you're a prime example of how they must not be,
This is just a sample of what they've done to you and me.

Do they owe us a living?
Of course they do, of course they do.
Owe us a living?
Of course they do, of course they do.
Owe us a living?
OF COURSE THEY FUCKING DO.

Don't want me anymore, cos I threw it on the floor.
Used to call me sweet thing, I'm nobody's plaything,
And now that I am different, 'd love to bust my head,
You'd love to see me cop-out, 'd love to see me dead.

Do they owe us a living?
Of course they do, of course they do.
Owe us a living?
Of course they do, of course they do.
Owe us a living?
OF COURSE THEY FUCKING DO.

The living that is owed to me I'm never going to get,
They've buggered this old world up, up to their necks in debt.
They'd give you a lobotomy for something you ain't done,
They'll make you an epitomy of everything that's wrong.

Do they owe us a living?
Of course they do, of course they do.
Owe us a living?
Of course they do, of course they do.
Owe us a living?
OF COURSE THEY FUCKING DO.

Don't take any notice of what the public think,
They're so hyped up with T.V., they just don't want to think.
They'll use you as a target for demands and for advice,
When you don't want to hear it they'll say you're full of vice.

Do they owe us a living?
Of course they do, of course they do.
Owe us a living?
Of course they do, of course they do.
Owe us a living?
OF COURSE THEY FUCKING DO.

We love crass

[brekin]

"Superman's Song"

Tarzan wasn't a ladies' man
He'd just come along and scoop 'em up under his arm
Like that, quick as a cat in the jungle
But Clark Kent, now there was a real gent
He would not be caught sittin' around in no
Junglescape, dumb as an ape doing nothing

[Chorus:]
Superman never made any money
For saving the world from Solomon Grundy
And sometimes I despair the world will never see
Another man like him

Hey Bob, Supe had a straight job
Even though he could have smashed through any bank
In the United States, he had the strength, but he would not
Folks said his family were all dead
Their planet crumbled but Superman, he forced himself
To carry on, forget Krypton, and keep going

[Chorus:]
Superman never made any money
For saving the world from Solomon Grundy
And sometimes I despair the world will never see
Another man like him

Tarzan was king of the jungle and Lord over all the apes
But he could hardly string together four words: "I Tarzan, You Jane."

Sometimes when Supe was stopping crimes
I'll bet that he was tempted to just quit and turn his back
On man, join Tarzan in the forest
But he stayed in the city, and kept on changing clothes
In dirty old phonebooths till his work was through
And nothing to do but go on home

[jam.fuse]

There's a man who takes your wallet
There's a man who takes your beer
There's a man who takes your woman
There's a man who just takes you

He's a government official
That's what his papers say
He's a government official
And he takes you every day

There's a man who takes your cigarettes
There's a man who takes your car
There's a man who takes the piss out of you
But the biggest thief by far

He's a government official
Knocking on your door
He's a government official
Coming back for more

He's organised
Organised crime
Organised crime

He's organised
Organised crime
Organised crime

There's a man who takes your petrol
There's a man who takes your food
There's a man who takes your place in the queue
There's a man who just takes you

He's a government official
Checking up on you
He's a government official
There's nothing you can do

He's organised
Organised crime
Organised crime

He's organised
Organised crime
Organised crime

He's organised
Organised crime
Organised crime

He's organised
He's organised crime
Organised crime

UK SUbs 1979 "Brand New Age"

[blanc]

Briefly cutting into the nostalgia for 68 to take issue with this little bit in the original article

"They are, of course, doing nothing illegal."

I think its been for some time clear that banks and the financial sector in general are laundering the profits from the nastier sections of crime, involved in the push to illegal wars, and in influencing law makers to pander to their interests undermining the democratic processes of government and putting the viability of the state at risk acting treasonably. It would seem that the responsibility for all of this lies with a small group of people, those with the financial clout to corrupt. Sometimes natural justice has to prevail over the letter of the law.

Back to 68. In my recollection, this was followed by a new fogeyism, and then a cult of the body - undermined by a change of fashion effectively. (68 -ers did not jog or lift weights in the gym). Then, later, a focus on competitiveness, winners and losers. More effective than the brutal police repression tactics which went on at that time, these merely generated sympathy. So, who leads this curious tidal change of consciousness, aren't we back to media control?

Universities were less susceptible to influence by media, at least then. The now ubiquitous tv was simply not available to most students as I recall. So, words and ideas spread by community. They were also still places where the focus was on challenging ideas and fostering individual creative thought, not on chomping through texts and regurgitating them to get a piece of paper and a good job in industry. The idea of a degree in 'business studies' had not, I think, surfaced at that time. A clearer distinction between intellectual activity and money grubbing.
Intellectual activity, ideas, philosophy, literature, are somewhat downgraded now, wouldn't you say? Its the financially successful who get feted and in the UK honoured and invited to Royal shindigs.

[82_28]

Briefly cutting into the nostalgia for 68 to take issue with this little bit in the original article

"They are, of course, doing nothing illegal."

I think its been for some time clear that banks and the financial sector in general are laundering the profits from the nastier sections of crime, involved in the push to illegal wars, and in influencing law makers to pander to their interests undermining the democratic processes of government and putting the viability of the state at risk acting treasonably. It would seem that the responsibility for all of this lies with a small group of people, those with the financial clout to corrupt. Sometimes natural justice has to prevail over the letter of the law.

Back to 68. In my recollection, this was followed by a new fogeyism, and then a cult of the body - undermined by a change of fashion effectively. (68 -ers did not jog or lift weights in the gym). Then, later, a focus on competitiveness, winners and losers. More effective than the brutal police repression tactics which went on at that time, these merely generated sympathy. So, who leads this curious tidal change of consciousness, aren't we back to media control?

Universities were less susceptible to influence by media, at least then. The now ubiquitous tv was simply not available to most students as I recall. So, words and ideas spread by community. They were also still places where the focus was on challenging ideas and fostering individual creative thought, not on chomping through texts and regurgitating them to get a piece of paper and a good job in industry. The idea of a degree in 'business studies' had not, I think, surfaced at that time. A clearer distinction between intellectual activity and money grubbing.
Intellectual activity, ideas, philosophy, literature, are somewhat downgraded now, wouldn't you say? Its the financially successful who get feted and in the UK honoured and invited to Royal shindigs.

Hell yeah. Well said.

I think it comes down to "RAM" -- random access memory. There is only so much a human brain can reliably do in defined spans of time. If I choose to "loaf", which means exercising my creative will, there is somebody there to tell me I am wasting my time, I am trespassing, I am useless. They're using their RAM to influence what I do in my open memory cycles. It is the deletion of free will from the shared human memory, by the little bits of time they claim from us on a gaining and daily basis.

I had to go to a meeting tonight (DUI victims panel) and as we passed the time waiting for the meeting to start, some read newspapers (old school) others such as me checked in at RI and still others played scrabble and whatnot on their phones. We were all there for a purpose and that was (at first) a seeming waste of time, yet we knew we would all get bombarded with sad stories. However, we were ORDERED to attend this panel. Fine. I fully agree with the need for such a panel. Yet that is beside the point!

We were all there with our little pastimes in our hands, but if it were up to us, we would have been elsewhere doing what WE wanted. None of us were there of our own freewill, our own interest etc. We were there because our lives and livelihoods have been threatened because we all fucked up by drinking and driving. However, how can this solemn respect for those who presented the victim's panel be recreated, simulated, emulated in and of freewill? The freewill to do good.

We heard the stories presented tonight, we saw the mangled bodies of loved ones -- of the presenters, but we were there by court order. When we clapped after each presenter, I don't believe anybody clapped because we were trying to be polite or because we had to. We clapped because we all genuinely cared about the people and their stories. Yet again, none of us would have even been there were it not for the ORDER to do so. But, once there we were no longer under orders, we simply relived the grief of the presenters in a totally humane and filled with freewill way.

Our RAM had been accessed via an order from the judiciary to spend 90 minutes listening to drunk driving stories, whereas our RAM at that time had we not been ordered to attend would have been spent buried in our cellphones, commuting, watching TV, playing video games, getting high etc. That we were ordered and that I felt it was a very "classy" presentation by real people, we entered into another realm of our day to day lives. But, the fact that had we not been told to be there, no one would have shared in the moment.

Thus, what do we do? I know I come to RI and spend 100% of my time online otherwise in order to learn, share and communicate. Yet most people, from what I understand, do not use the Internet as a library. I do and am concerned deeply in mostly all facet of modern life. How do you teach people to be interested in thinking deeper?

And this is the problem with all of our devices and social networks.

Ah well. . . I'm just rambling. Hope that made a little sense.

[stickdog99]

If you can lay eyes on it, it’s mine
If you can walk upon it, it’s mine.
If you can come in here and put your hands on something, remember.

If there’s something here to swallow, it’s mine.
If there’s something round to follow, it’s mine.
If you can fold it up and put it in your pocket, remember, it’s mine.

If there’s something here to blow up, it’s mine.
If something round here makes you throw up, it’s mine.
If you wanna come round here and help yourself to something, remember, it's mine.

If you can latch onto it, it's mine.
If you can eat or screw it, it’s mine.
If you’re some commie scum who wants to share it all, remember, it’s mine.

If there's something here appealing, it’s mine.
If there’s something here worth stealing, it’s mine.
If you wanna walk in here and put your hands on something, remember, it's mine.

If you can lay eyes on it, it’s mine.
If you can walk upon it, it’s mine.
If it’s got continents and clouds and lots of water, remember, it’s mine.

[jam.fuse]

Gracious thanks to all concerned for the OP.

Data on net worth distributions within the top 1% indicate that one enters the top 0.5% with about $1.8M, the top 0.25% with $3.1M, the top 0.10% with $5.5M and the top 0.01% with $24.4M.

So if the the top half of one percent of US citizens is "who rules America" that is, assuming 313,000,000 total population, 1,565,000 stinking rich with about 2 mil or over... if'n my numbers be right. The top one percent of the top one percent, with 25 mil or more would be 31,300 REALLY stinking rich fuckers, and the top one percent of the top one percent of the top one percent, if you follow, would number 313 richer than god scumbags in amerika, and as wikipedia lists 412 merkin billionaires, I guess they would be the true "elite". I am curious what this anonymous financial manager would have to say about them?

What really piques my curiosity is how these numbers relate to the rest of the 6,687,000,000 people who live outside of the US A? What is the distribution of wealth in the EU, Asia, India, Russia, etc.? Does the same top half of one percent in other countries rule their respective states?

Wikipedia claims 798 non-merkin billionaires, for what its worth:


Rank Country/Region Number of billionaires[1] Share of
world total (%) Category
— World total 1210 100.0
1 USA 412 34.0 American billionaires
2 China 115 10.6 Chinese billionaires
3 Russia 101 8.3 Russian billionaires
4 India 55 4.5 Indian billionaires
5 Germany 52 4.3 German billionaires
6 Turkey 38 3.1 Turkish billionaires
7 H Kong 36 3.0 Hong Kong billionaires
8 UK 33 2.7 British billionaires
9 Brazil 30 2.5 Brazilian billionaires
10 Japan 26 2.1 Japanese billionaires

BTW I know the son of one of the top .01 percenters from the US. He is a nice enough fellow, well educated... mostly he flies around the world, taking drugs and fuckihg women.

[Dradin Kastell]

YUP: Lihavia luurankoja (in Finnish)



Fast translation of lyrics:

Here swings Helsinki: a funny little town
Full with futile hubbub, growing, bloating, staggering
Panting, it teaches: don't let a moment slip away
The capitalist's mirror shows: the biggest is most beautiful

So bloat, make profit, until your mind dims
The greatest won't ask for mercy but reminds us even from his death bed:

Mememe...mememe...mememe
Mememe...mememe...mememe
Mememe...mememe...mememe

But what is left, fat skeletons
The winner gathers the biggest mound
What do we leave behind, a pile of fat skeletons
The winner gathers the biggest mound

Like Pavlov's dogs we march in straight ranks
For sweet rewards: history... and earthly, fleeting glory

Giving in our own time our everything to matter
Let the children come after us, for they will know where lies the value of man

Repeat:

Mememe...mememe...mememe
Mememe...mememe...mememe
Mememe...mememe...mememe

What will we leave, fat skeletons
The winner gathers the biggest mound
What do we leave behind, a pile of fat skeletons
The winner gathers the biggest mound
... His name proclaimed by the silent cemetery!

[jam.fuse]

Being honest is no means of survival, avoid your inner feelings like the plague,
This is what it takes to comply with the images this structure will accomodate,
But things aren't what they seem when they're partially hidden behind walls of pretence built for peace of mind.
The barriers between us are forever maintained by our acceptance of the roles others choose to define.

In a world of competition life's portrayed as a contest where we're forced to live by making gains at others expense,
But no one's really gaining when perpetual conflict's the result of our relationships based on pretence,
We don't need this cultural cosmetic division it upholds the self interest on which the system feeds,
A deconditioned consciousness of mutual respect is the only way to cure this cosmetic disease.