An archival post from Fortune Magazine, looking at how top executives lived in 1955. Much of it is juxtaposed with wistful memories of the Gilded Age 25 years earlier, before the war, at the beginning of the Depression. It’s a bizarrely fascinating portrait, and makes it clear that today’s world is far similar to 1929 than 1955.
Tag: occupy
The Militarization Of Campus Police
An essay about the militarization of campus police, in response to the pepper-spraying of peaceful protesters at UC Davis this week. William Gibson (@GreatDismal) reminisces:
Glad I had opportunity to visit overtly fascist nations as a young man. Good to know the smell. Like skunk, state terror.
Occupy Oakland’s Port Action
ZunguZungu’s account of the Occupy Oakland Port Action. I really wonder how far this all will go. It’s amazing how the informational connections we’ve created in the world are playing out. How quickly things echo and get re-interpreted by new minds. The derivative is still positive, so far as I can tell.
Wall Street Isn’t Winning, It’s Cheating
Matt Taibbi blows his stack at a fellow commentator who accuses the OWS protestors of simply being envious of the rich. He gives a litany of examples of how, in fact, the Wall St. illuminati have gotten to where they are by cheating and gaming the system, or at the very best, by being lucky. Not through hard work or supernatural skill. Being pissed off about that isn’t being jealous of someone else’s success. At what point do the “deviant” and “legitimate” financial sectors simply merge, with little to nothing in the way of externally imposed rules governing what’s acceptable, and what’s not?