Occupy Wall Street Continues, The Fed Being Big Brother, and Rick Perry's Own Solyndra

I have talked about it a bit before, but I am honestly surprised how long "Operation: Occupy Wall Street" has lasted.  All along I figured a total of maybe 25 people would show up for a few days and then go back to their trust funds and Marx worshiping.  Well they definitely proved me wrong:

MYFOXNY.COM - After a day of turmoil and unrest, the Occupy Wall Street protest continued in Manhattan Sunday.

80 protesters were arrested Saturday in Union Square after police said they were arrested for blocking traffic. The charges included disorderly conduct and resisting arrest.

One person was charged for assaulting a police officer.

A few of the protests were caught on camera and a Youtube video showed some protesters getting sprayed with mace.

Here is the video:

While protesting "the man" and peacefully bitching about the banksters is all well and good, it's highly doubtful any of these kids actually understand how the Federal Reserve System or economics in general works.  Do they know how many NY Fed primary dealers there are?  Do they actually understand all the detrimental affects of fiat money printing?  Have they ever read "Human Action'' or even heard of Murray Rothbard?  Since he doesn't have a New York Times column out every Monday and Friday (you know exactly who I am talking about) probably not.  Still, I gotta hand it to these kids for having the spunk to stay out there for so long and the whole affair not escalating into a violent riot.  Here are some apt pics via WilliamBanzai7:

While I may have doubted the affect of "Operation: Occupy Wall Street," it looks like the big boys up top are starting to get worried (I honestly couldn't believe this when I read it):

The Federal Reserve Bank of the United States, which in a Request for Proposals filed to companies that are Fed vendors, is requesting the creation of a "Social Listening Platform" whose function is to "gather data from various social media outlets and news sources." It will "monitor billions of conversations and generate text analytics based on predefined criteria." The Fed's desired product should be able to "determine the sentiment [ED:LOL] of a speaker or writer with respect to some topic or document"... "The solution must be able to gather data from the primary social media platforms – Facebook, Twitter, Blogs, Forums and YouTube. It should also be able to aggregate data from various media outlets such as: CNN, WSJ, Factiva etc." Most importantly, the "Listening Platform" should be able to "Handle crisis situations, Continuously monitor conversations, and Identify and reach out to key bloggers and influencers."

Ha! Now that the status quo is being legitimately challenged on a number of platforms, looks like it's time to start spying on the little people and jump start the propaganda machine ala posters in the 1920's.

What does the Fed seriously expect to accomplish from doing this?  Figuring out more people dislike than they originally thought?  As Charles Hugh Smith puts it, too many people realize that "The witch-doctors at the Federal Reserve have been busy painting radio dials on rocks for the past four years, hoping that their increasingly desperate pleas will magically reach the gods of "animal spirits."  Looks like Bernanke can thank one man for all the new much needed scrutiny:

Since I am on the topic of crony capitalism, I received an email from a fan of my recent Press and Journal article who provides some inside knowledge on Rick Perry:

Many Texans have seen thru Perry and his globalists from the beginning and I suspect the only reason he was elected Governor was because his Demo opponent was a con man from Houston, so it was lesser of 2 evils election.

Sort of  boots on the ground report, but the area Republican Women have even said in quiet whispers that they favor Ron Paul.  

I am waiting for the links between Perry and Centra to hit the news. Centra is a Spanish company that builds toll roads for states - of course the deal is Centra builds the road and then gets the profits for the next decade or two. Toil roads are not a favorite of Texans, but Perry has pushed some thru. 

But the real issue is that Centra built toll roads in Illinois several years ago, and now bond payments are coming due and Centra is short money to pay because the toll roads were not as profitable as projected.

Now this is where it gets twisty - Under the influence of Perry, Texas State retirement/pension fund has invested in Centra - problem is that Centra is due to default and probably throw  BK.  Texas rumors are that this is a chunk of change of the pension fund investments. 

How serious the hit on the pension fund is yet to be determined, but it is a known fact that Perry is 'related to Centra leaders' thru marriage of in-laws or his children s in-laws.

Ironically, Robert Wenzel has a post today further elaborating on the potential scandal:

Madrid-based Cintra is involved in road construction projects across the globe, including the operation of the Indiana Toll Road. Because of lower than expected traffic on the toll road, speculation is mounting that Cintra may default on its $3.8 billion Indiana operation.

Cintra and its partners are also building in Texas the $2.1 billion North Tarrant Express, which involves the reconstruction of Loop 820 and Texas 121/183 in Northeast Tarrant County. Cintra is also the lead partner in the LBJ Express, which includes the expansion of Interstate 635 in Dallas.

The company is also lead partner in two segments of the Texas 130 toll road project between Austin and San Antonio.

 If Cintra defaults in Indiana, focus is going to turn to Texas. Among the things that will be discovered are these details:

Perry's former staffer Dan Shelley worked as a ‘consultant’ for Cintra (in 2004), became Perry’s liaison to the legislature during the time that Cintra was awarded the development rights to the multi-billion dollar Trans Texas Corridor (in 2005), then went back to work as a lobbyist for Cintra (in 2006). Shelly's daughter, Jennifer Shelley-Rodriguez, also has a consulting contract with Cintra.

Looks like Perry's got his own Solyndra scandal coming down the pike.  Look for Bachmann or Huntsman to bring it up soon in order to boost their own poll positions.  Romney will only break it out to finish off Perry once his 15 minutes of fame is up (he most likely has his own crony capitalist skeletons to hide).  Judging by Perry's dismal Thursday night performance, it doesn't look like he has too much time left.

With all the banker bashing in today's post, I will end by mentioning my article on the American Thinker today entitled "Leave the Rich Alone."  An excerpt:

Free-market economy = individuals voluntarily exchanging goods.  Each individual is better off as a result of the trade, or else he would not engage in it.

That is the true definition of a free market.  There is no worker exploration, no consumer profiteering, no Marxist chains to throw off.  Just social cooperation in the aggressive pursuit of a better standard of living.  The alphabet soup of regulatory agencies born out of Franklin D. Roosevelt's fetish for power and control serves no real purpose but to bolster government payrolls and guarantee votes under the charade of "doing something."  In turn, government-sponsored enterprises are mere funnels of taxpayer money to mitigate private risk and preserve the cash flow of campaign contributions.  It's always entertaining to hear progressives wax so eloquent about the merits of government regulation, yet when you press them on unintended consequences, you might as well be talking about quantum physics.

So with an economy still in the doldrums, what does a president who has more experience signing grandma up to vote than running even a Taco Bell propose?  Why, that we give him more money, of course!