Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} The Occupy Handbook by Janet Byrne The Occupy Handbook. Analyzing the movement's deep-seated origins in questions that the country has sought too long to ignore, some of the greatest economic minds and most incisive cultural commentators - from , Robin Wells, Michael Lewis, Robert Reich, Amy Goodman, Barbara Ehrenreich, Gillian Tett, Scott Turow, Bethany McLean, Brandon Adams, and Tyler Cowen to prominent labor leaders and young, cutting-edge economists and financial writers whose work is not yet widely known - capture the phenomenon in all its ragged glory, giving readers an on-the-scene feel for the movement as it unfolds while exploring the heady growth of the protests, considering the lasting changes wrought, and recommending reform. A guide to the occupation, The Occupy Handbook is a talked-about source for understanding why 1% of the people in America take almost a quarter of the nation's income and the long-term effects of a protest movement that even the objects of its attack can find little fault with. The Occupy Handbook. Analyzing the movement's deep-seated origins in questions that the country has sought too long to ignore, some of the greatest economic minds and most incisive cultural commentators - from Paul Krugman, Robin Wells, Michael Lewis, Robert Reich, Amy Goodman, Barbara Ehrenreich, Gillian Tett, Scott Turow, Bethany McLean, Brandon Adams, and Tyler Cowen to prominent labor leaders and young, cutting-edge economists and financial writers whose work is not yet widely known - capture the Occupy Wall Street phenomenon in all its ragged glory, giving readers an on-the-scene feel for the movement as it unfolds while exploring the heady growth of the protests, considering the lasting changes wrought, and recommending reform. A guide to the occupation, The Occupy Handbook is a talked-about source for understanding why 1% of the people in America take almost a quarter of the nation's income and the long-term effects of a protest movement that even the objects of its attack can find little fault with. The Occupy Handbook by Janet Byrne (Paperback, 2012) С самой низкой ценой, совершенно новый, неиспользованный, неоткрытый, неповрежденный товар в оригинальной упаковке (если товар поставляется в упаковке). Упаковка должна быть такой же, как упаковка этого товара в розничных магазинах, за исключением тех случаев, когда товар является изделием ручной работы или был упакован производителем в упаковку не для розничной продажи, например в коробку без маркировки или в пластиковый пакет. См. подробные сведения с дополнительным описанием товара. The Occupy Handbook by Janet Byrne. Gary Karz, CFA Host of InvestorHome One of the major developments that followed in the wake of the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) was Occupy Wall Street (OWS). OWS began on September 17, 2011 in Zuccotti Park, New York and the movement grew quickly with Occupy protests taking place in over 95 cities across 82 countries, and over 600 communities in the United States by October 9 2011 (OWS and the at Wikipedia). Despite the international attention, the movement seemingly lost momentum after protesters were forced out of Zuccotti Park on November 15, 2011. The Occupy Handbook edited by Janet Byrne was released on 4/17/2012 after the movement's publicity had for the most part died down. My initial interest in the book was the participation of Michael Lewis (his book The Big Short is the best seller about the crisis with over 1 million copies sold). As part of the book's promotion, Lewis' interview from the book was posted online, and I immediately focused on his comments both about what caused the crisis, and his suggestion of a boycott of the "Too Big To Fail" firms. I ordered The Occupy Handbook when it was published, but the momentum from the book release seemed to fade and I didn't make the time to read it until recently. Now that I've had a chance to work my way through the 500 pages (made up of commentary from more than 60 contributors), I'm glad I finally read the book for several reasons. First and foremost, the book offers a great education in OWS, as well as the historical precedents that the contributors cite. But the book is also rich in material regarding opinions about the causes and prescriptions for the global financial crisis. As an aggregator of opinions on both sides, I was pleasantly surprised to find both contributions that were complimentary of the movement, as well as those that were highly critical. For that reason, I think people with predispositions on both sides of OWS will find material to like and dislike in the book, but nearly all are likely to learn something regardless. The book is of particular interest for my research given that none of the book contributors participated in my crisis experts survey, although six of them are discussed in my article about individuals that warned in advance of the crisis (Paul Krugman, Raghuram Rajan, Robert Shiller, Nouriel Roubini, Michael Hudson, and James Grant). I'll be adding commentary from the Handbook contributors below the direct responses I've gathered in the Global Financial Crisis Expert Survey. Some of the contributors focused on the big picture and significance of the movement (from their view). For instance, Amy Goodman and Denis Moynihan write "At the heart of the Occupy Wall Street movement is the critique that wealth and opportunity are not equitably distributed, and our media system, largely controlled by corporations, contributes to that status quo." George Gresham writes Occupy Wall Street has reshaped the national debate as quickly and dramatically as any social movement in American History. Before fall 2011, America had no common language to explain the crash of 2008 and its causes. Now we can see and describe the chasm separating the 99 percent and the 1 percent. The Occupy movement might be mocked as naive for lacking a specific set of demands, but it has brilliantly identified the one fundamental problem of our time. Because Occupy Wall Street has drawn attention by marching across bridges and sitting down in streets, some critics call it a lawless mob. But Occupy's peaceful protests are firmly in the tradition of the civil rights movement. Emmanuel Saez is one of the economists whose research gave Occupy Wall Street the slogan "We are the 99 percent." Pew's recent data (4/23/2013) on inequality is here. Saez writes. Jeffrey Sachs takes an expanded view with additional "demands" for Occupy movement. He writes. Other contributors were more balanced and willing to question some of the core Occupy positions. Gillian Tett (author of Fool's Gold) writes "The question that citizens and politicians alike need to ask is not why did the bankers "hide" their activities before 2007, but why did so few people actually ask hard questions at all. Why, in other words, did Western society allow finance to spin out of control-in plain sight? And what does it mean for how we treat finance today, on Wall Street or anywhere else? Some of the contributors focused on the financial industry and the speculative aspect of the industry, as well as wider society. For instance, John Cassidy (author of How Markets Fail: The Logic of Economic Calamities) offers a well documented/referenced commentary on the growth of the financial industry and citing Andrew Haldane adds "In most industries, when people are paid too much their firms go bankrupt, and they are no longer paid too much. The exception is when people are paid too much and their firms don't go broke. That is the finance industry." Along similar lines Arjun Appadurai writes "Consider television: if you spend even three hours surfing between CNN and BBC on any given day (surfing for news about Libya or about soccer for example), you will find yourself regularly assaulted by business news." One of the criticisms of more recent Occupy focused books is that "the movement never stated what it was for." Martin Sandbu in his 3 Occupy book review (of by and Allen Lane , Meme Wars: The Creative Destruction of Neoclassical Economics by Kalle Lasn, and Occupy: Three Inquiries in Disobedience by WJT Mitchell, Bernard Harcourt and Michael Taussig), writes that it is "sad, too, that none of the books mentions St�phane Hessel, the French second world war resistance hero who died this year." In the Occupy Handbook, Robert Zaretsky does write about Stephane Hessel's pamphlet Indignez-vous! which sold more than 2 million copies in France and more than a million copies in three dozen languages. Time for Outrage, the American edition, was released in August 2011 and argues that life and liberty must still be fought for, and urges us to reclaim those essential rights we have permitted our governments to erode since the end of World War II. Citing a 2011 interview, he adds "While the enemy today is far less obvious than it was in occupied France, 'we know who it is: financial speculation. Come tomorrow, political engagement will be the same as in 1944: to regulate the markets and introduce a true social democracy.'" In his interview with Tom Verlaine, Matt Taibbi (author of Griftopia) discusses the equity markets and states. Returning to the topic of the primary causes of the GFC, Martin Wolf, author of Fixing Global Finance suggests that we need to emphasize the role of the government and its agencies, including central banks. He writes. Bethany McLean (co-author of All the Devils Are Here) notes that prior to the crisis was the first time in history that mortgage origination growth and income growth were negatively correlated. Mclean writes that the crisis doesn't prove one way or another "this is what happens when the government says everyone should have a home" and if subprime and Alt-A loans had been limited to first-time homebuyers, there never would have been a crisis. Carman Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff (authors of This Time is Different, but more recently in the news for having one of their well known papers publicly critiqued) offer commentary that separates root causes of the crisis, its symptoms, and features such as financial regulation, which served as amplifiers of the boom-bust cycle. Their handbook chapter (PDF here) appears to be for the most part a condensed version of this paper by Reinhart (A Series of Unfortunate Events: Common Sequencing Patterns in Financial Crisis). Discussions about events outside the US were an additional bonus of the Handbook. For instance, Robert Buckly points out that at the end of WWII, Lithuania had a per capita income level similar to Finland's. By 1991 its income had fallen to one-seventh the Finnish level. Neri Zilber writes that it takes an average of 7.7 years of salary to purchase a home in Israel -- compared to 2.9 in the United States, 5 in England, and 6.8 in Australia. The unique nature of the Israeli protests, however, resides in the fact that they took place in a prosperous economic environment. The government and the people had ostensibly done everything right--no subprime mortgage crisis as in America, no tax dereliction as in Greece, no hefty budget deficits as in Italy. Some of the other Handbook contributors commented on the challenges and problems that OWS faced. For instance, James Miller writes. David Cay Johnston addressed one criticism this way. One of the strongest challenges to multiple OWS positions seemed to be brought out by Tyler Cowen and Veronique de Rugy. They write. Claim 1: Wall Street is the main force holding back poor Americans. Wall Street has contributed to some very real problems, but the core issues for poor Americans are often healthcare, education, and cost of renting an apartment or buying a house. The U.S. health care system is hardly market-based. Instead it gives us the worst features of both private and public systems, but the public-sector component plays a very large role. For instance, nearly half of all health care spending comes from tax dollars. Claim 2: The top 1 percent is where the true class warfare is. There is systematic transfer of wealth from the relatively young and poor to the relatively old and wealthy. To put it slightly differently: the Occupiers should not be occupying Wall Street, they should be occupying AARP. Roughly 40 percent of the federal budget goes to Americans over the age of sixty-five, mainly through Medicare and Social Security (this number includes the 28 percent of Medicaid spending that goes to older people.) Assuming no significant changes in benefit levels, by 2030 these payments will consume 54 percent of the budget, and they will likely squeeze out just about everything else. Claim 3: The top 1 percent are basically fraudsters and financial tricksters. the top 1 percent [with financial-sector workers] also comprises realtors, lawyers, doctors and other medical personnel, and executives and managers. In fact, excluding capital gains, in 2005 13.9 percent of taxpayers in the top 1 percent worked in finance. Claim 4: More broadly shared prosperity can be achieved through redistribution of income. General economic growth lifts everyone's income, even if the incomes of those at the top increase a lot more. However, taxes on the 1 percent can't be increased excessively without consequences for the average American. even if higher taxes don't discourage the efforts of those who are wealthy, they decrease the incentive for individuals to become wealthy in the future. The point is not that current rates are necessarily the correct ones, only that we should not overestimate the gains from trying to tax the rich more heavily. It's a core economic lesson that trade-offs are everywhere. Another positive of the book (and useful for my GFC research) was the prescriptions offered. For instance, Lawrence Weschler cites Martin Feldsteina's October 12, 2011 NYTimes Op-Ed where he suggests "To halt the fall in house prices, the government should reduce mortgage principal when it exceeds 110 percent of the home value." Brandon Adams suggests a Voluntary Financial Transactions Tax, while Daniel Gross discusses the "procyclical" nature of the economy and suggests that the obvious countercyclical tool at our disposal is a financial transactions tax. Jeff Madrick recommends 1) "Medicare for all" and 2) public financing of all national elections. Felix Salmon encourages banks/servicers to mark their mortgages to market and cites the American Homeowner Preservation (AHP) (see wikipedia) which set up a hedge fund devoted to buying pools of defaulted mortgages and keeping homeowners in their homes (while making money in the process). It started with non-profit model and brokered willing buyers with underwater homeowners, which then did short sales and lease back to the former owner with an option to repurchase. As noted above, many have criticized OWS for not having an identified primary goal or set of goals. Two of the best selling writers (Lewis and Taibbi) that have written about the crisis do offer a relatively straight forward goal focused on the "too big to fail" banks. Michael Lewis writes "if I were in charge I would probably reorganize the movement around a single, achievable goal: a financial boycott of the six 'too big to fail' Wall Street firms: Bank of America, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Wells Fargo." Similarly, Matt Taibbi suggests OWS followers "Organize mass depositors' strikes and other actions with the concrete aim of breaking up the 'too big to fail' banks, which are a threat to national security. They are vulnerable, and this is the quickest way to show America that OWS means business and must be dealt with. I think OWS needs to function like a giant short-selling fund, only without the profit motive-it has to have the power to identify corrupt companies and put them out of business, whether through consumer strikes or other political actions. I think it's possible to develop this capacity." Wikipedia notes that national polling in November of 2011 found that 33% of voters supported OWS and 45% opposed it, with 22% not sure. A January 2012 Rasmussen survey found 51% of likely voters found protesters to be a public nuisance, while 39% saw it as a valid protest movement representing the people. Certainly the majority of the book contributors were supporters of OWS, but both supporters and critics discuss problems and issues that arguably contributed to OWS fading from the spotlight. Over five years into the Global Financial Crisis people still argue about its causes and appropriate responses. Martin Wolf offered this relatively balanced perspective. In addition to the criticism found in the Handbook, I have seen some other prominent writers offer additional commentary on OWS. For instance, in Occupy Wall Street at One Year: What Impact Has the Movement Had?, Eric Tyson suggests that "It seems that at least part of the unhappiness of the OWS movement is jealousy - and ignorance. In numerous interviews I've seen of the protestors, they say things like they want to 'demolish' and 'destroy' our economic system and identify themselves as socialists and even communists. But these folks miss a very important point. Lower income earners in America are so much better off than the vast majority of people in the rest of the world and are so much better off than previous generations were in America." Andrew Ross Sorkin has also come down hard on OWS and predicted in Occupy Wall Street: A Frenzy That Fizzled "It will be an asterisk in the history books, if it gets a mention at all." While many have compared OWS to the Tea Party, Luigi Zingales (author of A Capitalism for the People) suggests The Occupy movement and the 'tea party' have some common targets. Another relatively balanced criticism of the OWS movement comes from Sistene Secrets author Benjamin Blech, who cites Philosopher Philo for the quote "Money is the cause of good things to a good man, of evil things to a bad man." In Rich people are not the enemy, Blech summarizes. Cartoonist Scott Adams summarizes in That Top 1% Thing, "The genius of our constitution is that it has a big red button labeled "evolve." We just need to push it." Unfortunately, as Brandon Adams points out in the Occupy Handbook "What's the appropriate strategy when you're going through a financial crisis in the midst of a broader, long-run decline? We haven't figured that out yet?" Please send suggestions and comments to Investor Home. Last update 5/1/2013. Copyright � 2013 Investor Home. All rights reserved. Disclaimer. The Occupy Handbook by Janet Byrne. ". compelling. meticulous research enlivened by flashes of wit. a quietly sympathetic account of a complex, inscrutable personality." --Wall Street Journal ...... Janet Byrne is an editor who has worked with Nobel Prize–winning economists, Pulitzer Prize–winning writers, and leading political figures, financial journalists, academics, and best-selling authors. She is the author of The Occupy Handbook and A Genius for Living: The Life of Frieda Lawrence, a New York Times Notable Book; has served as a researcher for and as a contributor to numerous books; and has written for the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal. Copy editor/other editorial services for Michael Lewis/Sally Mann/James Patterson/Ali Soufan/Dana Priest/Ronan Farrow/Mary Roach/other award-winning writers The Occupy Handbook (Little, Brown/Hachette) • A Genius for Living: The Life of Frieda Lawrence (HarperCollins) BOOKS CONTRIBUTED TO (fact-check/research/write new material/rewrite): • Annotated Editions edited by Leslie S. Klinger and published by W. W. Norton: The New Annotated Frankenstein, The New Annotated H.P. Lovecraft, The New Annotated Dracula, The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes: The Novels and The Complete Short Stories. • The Concise Dictionary of Scientific Biography (Scribner) • “Mary Norris’s Voice Rises.” Huffington Post, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/janet-byrne/mary-norris-voice-rises-between-you-and- me_b_7007580.html. • “Nicole Krauss’s Great House.” Huffington Post, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/janet-byrne/nicole-krausss-great-house_b_747489.html. • “All the Wrong Places.” New York Times Book Review, https://www.nytimes.com/books/98/05/31/reviews/980531.31byrnet.html. EDITORIAL FREELANCER/COPY EDITOR/FACT-CHECKER: • These Truths, by Jill Lepore (W. W. Norton) • Catch and Kill, by Ronan Farrow (Little, Brown) • The Wind in My Hair, by Masih Alinejad (Little, Brown) • The Black Books, 1913-1932, by C. G. Jung, ed. Sonu Shamdasani (W. W. Norton) • Climate of Hope, by Michael Bloomberg and Carl Pope (St. Martin's) • Anatomy of Terror, by Ali Soufan (W. W. Norton). "Ali Soufan compares Al Qaeda and its vicious spinoff, the Islamic State, to the Hydra from Greek mythology: Cut off one head and two more quickly sprout. . a gripping story." - Michiko Kakutani, New York Times. • The Fifth Risk, by Michael Lewis (W. W. Norton) • The Undoing Project, by Michael Lewis (W. W. Norton) • The Big Short, by Michael Lewis (W. W. Norton) • Flash Boys, by Michael Lewis (W. W. Norton) • Boomerang, by Michael Lewis (W. W. Norton) • Hold Still, by Sally Mann (Hachette) • A dozen or more novels by James Patterson (Little, Brown) • The Black Banners, by Ali Soufan (W. W. Norton). Winner of the 2012 Ridenhour Book Prize for “an outstanding work of social significance” • Anatomy of Terror, by Ali Soufan. • Catherine the Great, by Robert K. Massie (Random House) • And many others. Writing Copy editing. General fiction Juvenile fiction Reference Biography Computers/technology Business/investing/ finance History African-American Science Nonfiction editor and copy editor. Narrative nonfiction Arts and humanities Politics Government Domestic and international affairs News events Economics Fact checking Copy editor/other editorial services for Michael Lewis/Sally Mann/James Patterson/Ali Soufan/Dana Priest/Mary Roach/other bestselling and award- winning writers Michael Lewis, author of The Fifth Risk, The Undoing Project, Flash Boys, The Big Short, The Blind Side, and Moneyball: “Janet Byrne will one day be understood as having turned copyediting into an art form. She has appeared from nowhere to improve my prose and, to the extent it is possible for an editor to do this, save me from myself. almost startlingly thorough, energetic, and intelligent. an ideal reader. make[s] me appear to be a better writer than I am.” Reviews of The Occupy Handbook: “Assembled in an astonishing three months by editor and author Janet Byrne, this hefty tome tackles the mercurial Occupy movement that has spread from Wall Street across the world via 55 essays from writers of all stripes and backgrounds. Smartly organized into three sections—what led to the Occupy movement, where it is today, and potential paths for the future—Byrne’s contributors let loose with volley after volley of analysis, figures, and suggestions. Hard statistics on the current state of economic inequality rest comfortably with and compliment historical accounts of similar protests, sociological examinations of wealth distribution, essays on Occupy’s shared principles with anarchy, ruminations on the efficacy of democracy, and the failed experiment that was communism. Many approaches are offered toward remedying the gross disparity of the distribution of wealth, ranging from various tax reforms to rethinking student loans and Medicare. Neither Byrne nor her essayists are glib enough to offer a roadmap; many authors suggest that the movement’s lack of a defined leader or list of demands is critical to its widespread appeal and endurance. Those curious about the momentum behind the movement and the economic, societal, and cultural trends that have enraged so many will find plenty of illumination here. It’s enough to make even a one percenter rethink the way wealth is shared.”—Publishers Weekly (Starred Review) “For those who have come to believe that economics exists only to legitimize the interests of a wealthy elite, this remarkable collection should be an eye-opener. Here we see what economics does best, which is to pursue a parsimonious and plausible set of hypotheses unblinkingly to their logical conclusion. The answers will often surprise: Did you know, for example, that the best evidence on how we should set income taxes points to tax rates upwards of 60 percent on the rich? Read the essay by Diamond and Saez (a Nobel Prize winner and a winner of the almost equally distinguished John Bates Clark Medal) for why.”—Abhijit V. Banerjee, MIT, and co-author, with Esther Duflo, of Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way to Fight Global Poverty. “A rich set of ideas for reforming the American political and economic system. Will any of these suggestions gain traction with the people who seek and hold political office? That depends entirely on you—the reader. Either we still have a vibrant democracy, capable of making sensible public policy. Or we are going down a long and very dark path.”—Simon Johnson, MIT Sloan School of Management and co-author, with James Kwak, of White House Burning and 13 Bankers: The Wall Street Takeover and The Next Financial Meltdown. “This fascinating collection explains why and how income and wealth inequalities have rightly climbed to the top of the policy agenda in so many countries. With multiple perspectives from both experts and activists, The Occupy Handbook contains valuable insights on the historical context, the formation of the popular movements, their impact, and what the future may hold. I suspect it won’t be long before this handbook is viewed as the reference guide for understanding how an unstructured gathering of people in Zuccotti Park ended up providing the catalyst redefining policy imperatives around the world.”—Mohamed A. El-Erian, former CEO of PIMCO and author of When Markets Collide. “When future historians ponder why the Great Recession failed to spark a populist revolt like those of the 1890s or 1930s, they’ll find a wealth of insights in this remarkable volume.”—Sylvia Nasar, author of Grand Pursuit: The Story of Economic Genius and A Beautiful Mind. “More than a scrapbook of the recent Occupy Wall Street movement, The Occupy Handbook, a compilation by our best journalists, thinkers and economists, puts the story of America’s revolt against inequality in welcome historical perspective. From the barricades of 1848, to the barrios of modern Chile, to the improbable campgrounds thrown together in the shadows of New York skyscrapers, the Handbook examines the budding question of whether democracy can foster a more equal, and also a more prosperous, society. Insightful pieces by Gillian Tett, John Cassidy, Bethany McLean and many more prepare you to think about the next outbreak of outrage and activism—which is only a matter of time.”—Roger Lowenstein, author of The End of Wall Street and When Genius Failed. “A succinct body of essays by knowledgeable, sympathetic observers on the grievances of the Occupy Wall Street protesters…. put[s] the OWS protests into a wider worldwide perspective—e.g., Nouriel Roubini’s simplified economics tutorial on the toll of globalization; and Robert M. Buckley’s daring assessment of the parallels between OWS and the pan-European uprisings of 1848. Other notable contributors include Pankaj Mishra, Barbara Ehrenreich, Paul Volcker, Robert Reich, Scott Turow and Jeffrey Sachs. An educational, highly useful primer on what’s broken and how to fix it.”—Kirkus (Starred Review) Reviews of A Genius for Living: “…compelling….meticulous research enlivened by flashes of wit….a quietly sympathetic account of a complex, inscrutable personality.”—Wall Street Journal. “. combines a cool style with scrupulous research.”—The New Yorker. “. a sleek greyhound.”—New York Times Book Review (full page) “. revealing, well-drawn and risk-taking.”—Boston Globe. “. reads as a paean to the female free spirit.”—Elle. “The Frieda who emerges is. rehabilitated from a fat, slovenly, snobbish, and amoral person, into a spontaneous and natural, rather nice woman with a lust for life, a sort of Teutonic Colette.”—New York Review of Books. “. judicious. places Frieda in the context of the Austro-Germanic avant-garde.”—Christian Science Monitor. • The Occupy Handbook (Little, Brown, 2012). Contributors: Nobel laureates Paul Krugman, Peter Diamond, and Robert Shiller; former Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker, Emmanuel Saez (UC–Berkeley), Martin Wolf (Financial Times), Robert B. Reich, David Graeber (LSE), Nouriel Roubini, and 45 others. • Hold Still, by Sally Mann. • The Big Short, by Michael Lewis (W. W. Norton) • Catch and Kill, by Ronan Farrow (Little, Brown) • The Black Banners, by Ali Soufan (W. W. Norton) • Top Secret America, by Dana Priest (Little, Brown) PREVIOUS PUBLISHING EXPERIENCE. • Awarded $73,000 grant from the Rockefeller Foundation for panel discussions at Ethical Culture Society (NY) and Peterson Institute for International Economics (Washington, DC). Panelists: Raghuram Rajan (Governor of the Reserve Bank of India), Nobel laureate Robert Solow, Martin Wolf (Financial Times), John Cassidy (The New Yorker), Bethany McLean (author of Shaky Ground; coauthor of The Smartest Guys in the Room and All the Devils Are Here), and 9 others.