Forum Post: Focus for OccupyWallStreet

Despite success in occupying many cities around the world, this movement will not accomplish much if it does not quickly find focus.

Wall Street is in the name of this movement for a reason. Wall Street is the epicenter of the recent financial disaster that has plunged the world economy into the deepest recession since the great depression. OWS needs to focus its efforts on putting an end to the 30 years of regulatory neglect that have turned Wall Street into a casino capable of bankrupting the world economy.

First let me say that Wall Street is a vital part of our modern economy and that free markets stand along with innovations such as electricity and penicillin in terms of contributing to the welfare of humanity.

The problem is that over the last 30 years, the free market forces responsible for ensuring efficiency and responsibility in our financial markets have eroded. During that time our financial system has undergone a shocking transformation. Public exchanges such as the stock market and bond market that use to be the heart of our financial system are now a small side show compared to the derivatives market that now dominates the landscape. A small cartel of Wall Street banks dominate the derivatives market and conducts all of the trading through private transactions where neither buyer nor seller have the transparency afforded by a public exchange. This lack of transparency allows for massive risk taking (at tax payer expense) and huge profits for Wall Street banks.

OWS should focus 100% of its efforts on pushing for legislation to enable the regulation of the derivatives market AND to create a public exchange for the trading of derivatives. This single change will restore balance to our financial system, neuter Wall Street of monopoly profits and associated power that has allowed it to co-opt our political system, and help our economy by reinstating the free market forces that are so critical to ensuring efficient allocation of capital.

This should not be a battle of liberal ideology vs. conservative ideology. OWS should not risk being dismissed as left wing movement looking for a handout. OWS supporters are NOT looking for a handout; they simply want to fix a system that is broken.

Milton Friedman the high priest of free markets and an icon to anyone on Wall Street famously stated that free market capitalism must have a referee to set the rules that prevent excesses that can threaten the entire market. OWS should use Wall Street's own ideology against it. Who on Wall Street can argue against free markets? Who can argue against the essential need for transparency in financial transactions? Who can argue that the $600 trillion derivatives market would not be more efficient and stable if there were a public exchange for buyers and sellers? This is Wall Street's biggest fear; millions in lobbying dollars have been spent to prevent it. Pulling the derivatives market into the daylight of a public exchange will put an end to the gluttonous binge on Wall Street that is still running at full steam today.

My simple message to OWS -- get focused, it is the only way the movement will effect change. The need for reform on Wall Street is at the center of our problems. Money = power; stop the printing press on Wall Street that has led to the current imbalance and we can restore the market forces that made our country the envy of the world. It won't be perfect, it won't end greed, it won't solve our healthcare and education problems, but it will keep our capitalist system from devouring itself. This is something that people can get behind. It unites liberals and conservatives, and gives OWS a chance at making a difference.