Around the world, people seem to be taking up the cry from the film, Network: “ I’m mad as Hell and I’m not going to take it anymore.” Whether it’s Bernie’s Millennials or Trump’s unemployed, Tea Party members, or Black Lives Matter folks, people are rising their voices to make their complaints heard. Even women in Poland, a predominately Catholic country, are growing defiant. When the country’s lawmakers announced they would introduce a bill to outlaw abortions, even when the mother’s health was at stake, “tens of thousands of women put on black clothes, boycotted work and staged protests.” (“Our Defiant Women In Black,” by Edwin Bendyk, excerpted from Polityk in The Week, October 21, 2016, pg. 14.) As a result, the bill was withdrawn.
In Victoria, Australia, the local government outlawed mooning as a form of protest. In response, 100 protesters pledged to stand before the Victoria Parliament House on the next full moon and break the law. (“Demanding The Right To Bare Our Buttocks,” by James Norman, excerpted from The Sydney Morning Harold, The Week, October 21, 2016, pg. 15.)
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Bankers have taken note of the rebelliousness abroad, particularly in the number of class action lawsuits being filed against them. Recently, they met at Versailles to develop plans that would discourage such suits and to punish an individual bank if it broke ranks to save itself. “They realize they are stronger together than when they splinter.” ((“Market Finance,” by Greg Farrell and Keri Geiger, Bloomberg Businessweek, Oct 12, 2016, pg.30-31.)
Wall Street has at last fallen into step with main street. Like the woman of Poland and the moonies of Australia, the bankers have decided they, too, don’t want to take it anymore. Of course, one might ask how much is left for them to take?
