Occupy Wall Street becomes NYC tourist stop (AP)

NEW YORK – Shawn Lahey, a ruler factory worker from Poughkeepsie, was watching the show. A dancing man held a pole marked "corporation," attached to a noose marked "financial system" — from which another dancing man was "hanging." Masked drummers provided a thumping soundtrack.

Times Square? Nope. He was all the way down in Manhattan's financial district, where the Occupy Wall Street protesters have camped out for more than a month.

Zuccotti Park has become a hub for more than demonstrators. Visitors, curious to see protest in action, are regular arrivals. Some take photographs of themselves, protesters and their signs in the background. On a typical day they clog the pedestrian traffic in the area, which is often bustling with financial district employees pushing their way through.

"I think it's great — they're trying to make a point," Lahey said, though he added with a wry smile, "... I don't think it'll make any difference. ... The government won't make any changes, because it's all about money."

Jackie Qualizza of Bucyrus, Kansas, challenged protester Art Udeykin, asking him to explain the purpose of the demonstration, which has inspired similar activism in many cities across the nation and around the world.

"Right now, we don't have a goal — except to back away from the system that's not working," replied Udeykin, a 23-year-old Russian-born Iowan. "This is a way to feel free, to feel normal."

Qualizza said she couldn't see herself demonstrating, but added, "I don't disagree with them. The government bailed out everyone, and things are still not working. Something has to change."

The protest against corporate influence in government and wealth inequality has many of the things tourists look for, including photo-worthy moments and even some trinkets. In this case, the T-shirts and buttons offered by protesters are generally free, though they accept donations.

The double-decker buses offering tours of Manhattan pass by on Broadway, with guides pointing out the park site and tourists — in sunny weather — often waving sympathetically at protesters from the top decks.

Wednesday was rainy, but visitors included a group of Chinese tourists accompanied by an interpreter and a guide.

Molly Schwad, a jeweler from Kansas traveling with Qualizza and other friends, said she was surprised by what she saw, compared to the TV coverage of the protest movement.

She saw a rather quiet encampment in the rain, of only about 200 people. At times several hundred people have camped at the park, and some of the demonstrations organized as part of the Occupy Wall Street movement have drawn thousands.

"I thought it was much bigger," Schwad said. "We were afraid there might be violence here."

Marsha Spencer, an unemployed seamstress knitting in the rain at the park Wednesday, gives visitors a view of the protests they may not have expected to see. She returns to her home in the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood at night but spends most of each day at the protest.

"When people see a 56-year-old grandmother sitting here, knitting — they pay attention," she said. "... I tell them I'm here because I want things to change for my five grandchildren."

Some visitors echoed her concerns, including Karen Conrad of Johnstown, Pa., who was in New York last week to visit family and stopped by to show her support.

"I'm a middle-class mother and I can't get ahead. If anything, I'm going downward," she said. She said her two children are burdened by debt from college loans and "won't be out of debt until their own children are ready for college probably."

Demonstrator Julian DeMayo, a law student from Montreal bundled up against the wind and rain, said the tourists' attitude toward the protest has changed over the weeks.

"At first, they seemed skeptical, looking at this like it was a circus show," he said. But more recently, he said, many visitors "looked genuinely interested, and inspired. And they seem impressed by the level of infrastructure."

He added, "I think they also see that there's a huge variety of people here — young and old, of all races, from everywhere."

Some nearby businesses are far less enamored of the protesters, and say the hubbub outside their doors is costing them money.

Stacey Tzortzatos, manager of Panini & Co., a casual restaurant that's normally bustling as it serves financial district clients, said the eatery has been losing business because police barricades discourage customers from coming in, and media vans are blocking the view.

But the biggest problem, she said, was protesters coming in to use the bathroom — "30 at a time." She said she put locks on the bathroom doors in response.

"They take showers using the sink, they brush their teeth, and they make a huge mess," she said.

Tzortzatos said she's been harassed and verbally abused by protesters, who have come in eating donated food.

"I was called `evil' for asking whether they were customers, when they came in eating their free pizza, smelling so bad," she said. "It's a constant battle, and it's getting worse as the weeks go by."

Other food venues didn't mind.

"Business is business!" said Alex Gervis, who works behind the counter at Manon, a cafe near Zuccotti Park that sells imported Italian coffee and Belgian chocolates.

He said protesters have come in "six, or even 10, at a time. And as long as they buy something and don't make a mess, we're happy to have them."

The only disruption came several days ago, "when they tried to play guitar," he said. "We can't have that."

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Analysis: Wall Street banks profit from their weakness (Reuters)

NEW YORK (Reuters) – The tempestuous bond markets of the third quarter could result in surprising gains for U.S. banks, but investors are unlikely to be impressed.

JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N) said on Thursday that about one-fourth of its profit in the quarter resulted from an accounting oddity known as debt valuation adjustments, or DVAs. They are paper gains that occur when investors price more risk into a company's bonds, leading to a reduction in liabilities.

Investors, dismayed that so much of JPMorgan's profit came from an accounting quirk rather than cash-generating business, sent the bank's shares 4.8 percent lower. Its Wall Street rivals are likely to report similar results, analysts said.

"We're likely to see these DVA gains across all of the big capital markets players," said Shannon Stemm, a financial stock analyst at Edward Jones.

Before JPMorgan's results, analysts had forecast DVA gains of $1 billion for Morgan Stanley, (MS.N) and $300 million for Goldman Sachs Group Inc (GS.N).

But because the two banks faced more severe bond-market stress than JPMorgan during the third quarter, they may report even larger DVA figures, analysts said. Those gains could be the only profits the two banks have to show for the quarter.

The rule that pertains to DVA, known as FAS 159, is part of rulemakers' efforts to make balance sheets more transparent by forcing companies to record changes in the market values of some assets and liabilities.

But the rules can make a company's financial statements more confusing, too, as when Lehman Brothers recorded a DVA gain of $1.4 billion just days before it filed for bankruptcy.

As the European debt crisis intensified in the third quarter, most U.S. bank debt weakened as investors grew jittery about the exposure of U.S. financial institutions. Morgan Stanley's debt was among the worst performing of the major banks, indicating that it may record the biggest gain, analysts said.

But experts cautioned that forecasting DVAs is difficult, because every bank funds its operations with a different combination of debt, and companies have some leeway for valuing the liabilities, particularly when they trade infrequently.

"It drives me crazy as an analyst," said Jack Kaplan, of Carret Asset Management, which has $1.4 billion in assets under management and holds JPMorgan shares and some Morgan Stanley debt. "It's nearly impossible to predict and you don't know if the rest of the market is factoring it in or not."

HARD TO PREDICT

Morgan Stanley, in particular, has seen enormous paper gains and losses that were difficult to forecast.

The bank reported a DVA gain of $1.4 billion in the third quarter of 2008 as the credit crisis reached its pinnacle, only to post a DVA loss of $6 billion the following period after the U.S. government stepped in with a multibillion-dollar bailout.

Analysts on average are forecasting a profit of 30 cents per share for Morgan Stanley, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. But it looks as though the only reason analysts see the bank in the black is a big DVA gain they are factoring in.

Half of the 24 analysts who cover Goldman believe the company will report its second loss in 50 quarters as a public company, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. The average estimate is a profit of 15 cents per share.

The estimates would be lower if not for hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of expected DVA gains.

Of course, none of that means investors or analysts view DVA as a good thing, nor do they equate changes in debt value as the same kind of income banks earn from fees or changes in asset values.

"People consider DVAs accounting noise," said Matthew Morris, director of corporate advisory services in the Dallas office of RGL Forensics. "It's counter to common sense because as the company weakens this is somehow a net positive thing"

(Editing by Dan Wilchins and Steve Orlofsky)

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56 Percent: The Most Troubling Number About Occupy Wall Street (ContributorNetwork)

A recent poll has shown that far more people are in agreement with the Occupy Wall Street movement than are opposed to it, even though it remains, going into its fourth week on October 14, a vaguely unfocused and amorphous demonstration against a number of things wrong with America and its government. In fact, according to the Time poll, the protest movement has a favorable rating of 54 percent (as opposed to a 23 percent unfavorable rating). However, even though a majority of Americans agree with those holding signs saying "We Are The 99%" and many of its positions -- such as prosecuting corporate executives responsible for the financial meltdown and raising taxes on millionaires -- 56 percent of the poll's respondents said they believe that the demonstrations will have little impact on American politics in general.

In short, most believe that, although the movement is viewed primarily as a positive entity, its impact will be marginal at best. The government -- and Wall Street -- will continue unabated, as it were. As they were.

That should be even more reason for those who are part of the 99 percent -- ostensibly, those whose income is less than a million dollars per year and the greater part of Occupy Wall Street -- to stand with those that are already demonstrating. The status quo remains static due to inaction and continued silence, and a populist movement is only as powerful as the sum of its individual components and their message. The organizers of Occupy Wall Street are fully aware of this -- as are their opposers.

Since its inception in late September, Occupy Wall Street has grown from a small protest in New York to a nationwide movement, with other "Occupy" protests springing up from Boston to Dallas, Tampa to San Francisco. And as the movement's message of being fed up with government inactivity that favors the rich and powerful, a stagnant economy with a limited jobs market, and a top-down economic system that has exaggerated the gap between the haves and the have-nots over the past couple decades, resonated with more and more individuals, the idea has developed to take the message global on October 15.

At the same time, most corporate controlled media ignored the small protest at first, but as the number of protesters grew (as did their list of grievances) and the demonstrations spread across the country, not only did major media begin covering their individual and collective stories, but those opposed to their message began to sound off as well. Fox News Channel, which had been instrumental in the national organization and rapid dissemination of the (so-called grassroots) tea party's conservative message, painted Occupy Wall Street as a disorganized bunch of anti-capitalists and author Ann Coulter compared them to "Nazis." Rush Limbaugh called them "commies," a White House-driven liberal conspiracy. Even Eric Cantor, Republican House Majority Leader, echoed the Fox New charge and called the protesters a "mob."

Needless to say, Fox News (whose shows are produced, owned, and operated by millionaires) and Limbaugh (a multi-millionaire world unto himself) and Cantor (a multi-millionaire representative from the state of Virginia) see the status quo as a good thing. They are part of the 1 percent that Occupy Wall Street sees as holding too much money and power at the expense of the other 99 percent of the people.

The truth of the matter is: The demands of the protesters would do little to affect the lives of the 1 percent, even if they managed to have a major impact on future legislation solving wage disparities and social inequalities. In the end, the demands are being made to alter the system that relegates the 99 percent to forever being 99 percent or living an existence just a couple of paychecks short of being homeless or without the basic necessities of life. The rich will remain rich, regardless. In the nation with perhaps the highest standard of living in the world, the fact that so many are out of work or working underpaying jobs or working two or three jobs to make ends meet is a shame unto itself. That so many feel the need to rise up and say something about is indicative that laws, regulations, and conditions will have to improve to make the plight and the number of opportunities for upward mobility of the 99 percent improve as well.

But resistance to those improvements is guaranteed. Unfortunately, so is the idea that all the efforts of the protesters will go for naught, the status quo unshaken. And the most troubling aspect of it all: The idea that millions of individuals working in popular concert attempting to eliminate the socioeconomic and sociopolitical disparities that now exist within the American way of life will have little effect.

That 56 percent of Americans believe that the movement will have little impact is a sad testament to how ingrained the the idea of the intractableness of the government and inertia within prevailing socioeconomic systems have become. And if that number does not add resolve to the populist movement to endure until they effect positive change in the lives of the millions of people who comprise the 1 percent, then that same 56 percent will assuredly be correct about the impact of the 99 percent.

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AP Interview: Walesa backs Wall Street protesters (AP)

WARSAW, Poland – Poland's former President Lech Walesa says he supports the Occupy Wall Street movement in New York that protests corporate greed.

The Nobel Peace laureate told The Associated Press that he is planning either a visit or a letter to the protesters.

"I am weighing now how and when to best support them, without doing any harm," Walesa said Thursday.

Since mid-September, the protesters have besieged a park near Wall Street to rally against corporate greed, saying that is the main cause for the U.S.'s failing economy. Similar protests are planned across Europe this weekend, including in Poland's capital, Warsaw.

The 68-year-old Walesa said the global economic crisis has made people aware that "we need to change, reform the capitalist system" because we need "more justice, more people's interests, and less money for money's sake."

"We cannot accept a situation when capitalism is making huge money and then does not know what to do with it," Walesa told the AP. "It should invest in new jobs."

"People are most important," he said.

The legendary freedom leader said employees, employers and representatives of state and local governments should get together to work out solutions that would best serve the people and the societies.

"For now, capitalism is working to produce more money but does not see the people," Walesa said. "This problem is getting worse across the world."

Walesa led Poland's anti-communist Solidarity movement that eventually brought democracy and a market economy to the country in 1989. Between 1990-95, he served as the country's first popularly elected president and he now campaigns across the world for global democracy and human rights.

Since communism's fall, Poland has developed into a market economy with a European social safety net. Its economy has grown steadily since joining the European Union in 2004 and it even avoided a recession during the global downturn of 2008-2009 — the only EU country to do so.

However, Poland remains plagued by legacies of communism — like high unemployment of almost 12 percent and low wages — and problems brought by capitalism, like a growing gap between the country's rich and poor.

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Ivy League professors speak to anti-Wall Street protesters (Reuters)

BOSTON (Reuters) – Ivy League professors dropped by anti-Wall Street protest camps in Boston and New York on Friday to school the demonstrators on theories that bolster their demands to end inequality in the American economy.

Part of the Occupy Boston site was temporarily renamed "Free School University" as the crowd gathered at the feet of Brown University international political economy professor Mark Blyth and Boston University international relations professor Kevin Gallagher.

Standing on a wooden crate, they discussed with a crowd of about 50 people the misdeeds of Wall Street and Washington. Future forums were scheduled to address anarchism, psychology and law and privacy rights.

"People have every right to be angry," Blyth said about the Wall Street bailout in 2008, which left banks enjoying huge profits while average Americans suffered under high unemployment and job insecurity with little help from the federal government.

In New York later on Friday, a Columbia University professor was slated to talk to protesters about activism in Greece.

Organizers, who have pledged to stay in the tent village in Boston's financial district indefinitely and possibly into the winter, said they were kicking off what they hoped would become a regular forum for education and discussion.

The crowd was mixed with people versed in economic policies and others struggling to understand how the country will climb out of the financial crisis.

People picking up lunch at nearby food trucks gazed at the protesters, some snapped photos, while others meandered through the camp with their take-out meals.

Stephen Jerome, 50, from Lawrence, Massachusetts came by with his checkbook, donating $500 to the cause.

"These people are here with their hearts and brains and compassion," he said.

Aaron Cohen has been passing by on his lunch hour to show support.

The 61-year-old epidemiologist said he too is worried about his own financial security and that of his three daughters and grandchildren.

"They are starting out farther behind even with our support than when we were at their age," Cohen said. Despite being employed as teachers, student loans leave his daughters, in their 30s, wondering if and when they will be able to buy homes.

Christine and Robert Gerzon, who traveled from Concord, Massachusetts, intend to organize their neighbors to donate supplies to the Boston demonstrators.

The Occupy Wall Street movement that began in New York last month with a few people has expanded to protests across the country with marches and camps taking shape from Tampa, Florida to Portland, Oregan, and Los Angeles to Philadelphia.

Protesters' messages range from anti-corporate sentiments to frustration with the financial system and politicians.

Three weeks after protesters first hunkered down in New York City, the city has spent more than $1.9 million in overtime to dispatch police for crowd control during protests, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said on Friday.

While the ranks of protesters in New York have swelled into the thousands at times, most demonstrations elsewhere have numbered in the hundreds.

An Occupy San Antonio march on Friday attracted about two dozen supporters. Roughly the same number gathered in Washington D.C.'s McPherson Square.

(Additional reporting by Lily Kuo in Washington, D.C. and Jim Forsyth in San Antonio; Editing by Greg McCune)

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