Why Occupy Wall Street?

As Mayor Bloomberg's cops evict the New York encampment and people try to march back (above via Twitter), here's Paul Krugman catching the movement's meaning in a couple of simple paragraphs. In contrast to the postwar era in Britain when hardships were shared by a grateful population that had just won a war for its survival:

... austerity is being imposed because men in suits say that it’s necessary to satisfy the invisible gods of the financial market. It’s understandable that the public is beginning to have its doubts, and not just because those invisible gods somehow demand sacrifices only from workers, never from the wealthy. For the fact is that those men in suits have no idea what they’re doing ...

... if you want to contrast the stoicism of the postwar populace with the anger and confusion of today’s voters, don’t blame consumerism; blame our leaders, who have imposed gratuitous, unfair pain on their constituents, who are finally starting to figure it out.

When we keep marching, sometimes our leaders figure out they have to run to catch up ...