Last Wednesday, Occupy Wall Street, known at Twitter as #OWS, surged, thanks to a boost from MoveOn.org, to 15,000 souls. That same day, former White House Green Jobs Czar Van Jones rallied hundreds at the Capitol. Smaller demonstrations have been reported in 50 cities.
Also on Wednesday the Heritage Foundation commenced an effort to tackle the underlying cause of the uneasiness manifesting in the streets of America, both Wall and Main, and the world. If the populist left and the populist right align, as they well may, we may be on the cusp of a Constitutional Realignment, or, stated plainly: really throwing the bums out.
One of the protesters’ most clearly defined complaints is wealth inequality. Wealth inequality is described at length by then Federal Reserve Bank President (now Board Vice Chairman) Janet Yellen and, more recently by former President Bill Clinton.
Keynes prophesied in The Economic Consequences of the Peace something very much like #OWS (and the whole world of protests) and addressed the underlying cause of the resentment:
Lenin is said to have declared that the best way to destroy the capitalist system was to debauch the currency. … By this method they not only confiscate, but they confiscate arbitrarily; and, while the process impoverishes many, it actually enriches some. The sight of this arbitrary rearrangement of riches strikes not only at security, but at confidence in the equity of the existing distribution of wealth. Those to whom the system brings windfalls, beyond their deserts an