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Any political party that decides to fight wall street will find it incredibly hard when their bank accounts are closed, their paypal donations confiscated, and

Any political party that decides to fight wall street will find it incredibly hard when their bank accounts are closed, their paypal donations confiscated, and their credit cards canceled. Try paying your phone bill in cash. Occupy Wall street was quashed because it was a disorganized leaderless mess, and Wall Street would rather it stay that way.

LatteLazy 6y ago
I'm a bit incredulous of this. Has wall street ever actually done that? Here in the UK the last Labour Party was super left wing, actively said they'd cut 90% of financial services. They didn't get their accounts closed or their cards cancelled. Were Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren forced to use bitcoin for their groceries? The real pull Wall Street has is that its a profitable industry. It makes a shit tonne of money and you want it here because you want to tax it. Compare that to car makers, a low margin industry with big externalities that can't easily decamp to some other country. Wallstreet (The City is the UK equivalent) is also a major strategic asset. Cutting Iran off from Western listed companies and dollar transactions is a much bigger issue for them than sanctioning their leaders or blowing up the occasional general. The same for Zimbabwe or China: revoked access to capital markets is a big issue. To be able to revoke access to those markets, you need to have those markets.
- sthnblllII 6y ago
  As a working class American why should I care about cutting off Iran from international bank transactions? US wages have been stagnant for 40 years while executive pay has ballooned. Yes. Dozens of small parties and political organizations have been targeted by finance in both the US and the UK.
  - LatteLazy 6y ago
    Can you share an example of when financial services companies have deplatformed (is that the right term?) a political party in the US or UK? I agree you probably shouldn't care about Iran. I'm just saying that's why presidents and senators care. Also, you should care about all the jobs FS creates both at the top and further down. Without financial services not only would your taxes go up, you wouldn't get half as good a mortgage and there would be a lot fewer jobs across the economy... Edit: The only examples of account closures I can find are either for right wing groups (HSBC closed a load of those) or 1 democrat in Florida whose account was closed after she was told they couldn't accept cannabis cash and she said she'd pay that in anyway...
    - sthnblllII 6y ago
      So if you aren't a republican or a democrat you don't get to have a bank account? Thats completely fucked up man.

LatteLazy 6y ago

I'm a bit incredulous of this. Has wall street ever actually done that? Here in the UK the last Labour Party was super left wing, actively said they'd cut 90% of financial services. They didn't get their accounts closed or their cards cancelled. Were Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren forced to use bitcoin for their groceries? The real pull Wall Street has is that its a profitable industry. It makes a shit tonne of money and you want it here because you want to tax it. Compare that to car makers, a low margin industry with big externalities that can't easily decamp to some other country. Wallstreet (The City is the UK equivalent) is also a major strategic asset. Cutting Iran off from Western listed companies and dollar transactions is a much bigger issue for them than sanctioning their leaders or blowing up the occasional general. The same for Zimbabwe or China: revoked access to capital markets is a big issue. To be able to revoke access to those markets, you need to have those markets.

sthnblllII 6y ago
As a working class American why should I care about cutting off Iran from international bank transactions? US wages have been stagnant for 40 years while executive pay has ballooned. Yes. Dozens of small parties and political organizations have been targeted by finance in both the US and the UK.
- LatteLazy 6y ago
  Can you share an example of when financial services companies have deplatformed (is that the right term?) a political party in the US or UK? I agree you probably shouldn't care about Iran. I'm just saying that's why presidents and senators care. Also, you should care about all the jobs FS creates both at the top and further down. Without financial services not only would your taxes go up, you wouldn't get half as good a mortgage and there would be a lot fewer jobs across the economy... Edit: The only examples of account closures I can find are either for right wing groups (HSBC closed a load of those) or 1 democrat in Florida whose account was closed after she was told they couldn't accept cannabis cash and she said she'd pay that in anyway...
  - sthnblllII 6y ago
    So if you aren't a republican or a democrat you don't get to have a bank account? Thats completely fucked up man.