Libertarian Wall Street Protesters Demand End to the Fed

Libertarians Support Wall Street Protest to End the Fed

Ron Paul says that the Wall Street protests are legitimate, and that they are really protesting against the Federal Reserve.
One of the protest organizers tells me that a large proportion of the protesters are Ron Paul supporters. Most of them believe that ending the Federal Reserve is the most important step to restore our country’s prosperity. See this, this and this.
Remember, even the Wall Street Journal has called for the Fed to be broken up.
As I have extensively documented, the Fed is largely responsible for the economic crisis, and has failed to meet a single one of its stated mandates (let alone its implied ones).
The Fed has been enabler-in-chief for the corruption rampant on Wall Street.
And as I noted Tuesday:

Some very well-known economists also support ending the Fed.
For example, Milton Friedman said:

This evidence persuades me that at least a third of the price rise during and just after World War I is attributable to the establishment of the Federal Reserve System… and that the severity of each of the major contractions — 1920-1, 1929-33 and 1937-8 is directly attributable to acts of commission and omission by the Reserve authorities…
Any system which gives so much power and so much discretion to a few men, [so] that mistakes — excusable or not — can have such far reaching effects, is a bad system. It is a bad system to believers in freedom just because it gives a few men such power without any effective check by the body politic — this is the key political argument against an independent central bank…
To paraphrase Clemenceau, money is much too serious a matter to be left to the central bankers.

Austrian economists such as Murray Rothbard also would like to end the Fed:

Given this dismal monetary and banking situation, given a 39:1 pyramiding of checkable deposits and currency on top of gold, given a Fed unchecked and out of control, given a world of fiat moneys, how can we possibly return to a sound noninflationary market money? The objectives, after the discussion in this work, should be clear: (a) to return to a gold standard, a commodity standard unhampered by government intervention; (b) to abolish the Federal Reserve System and return to a system of free and competitive banking; (c) to separate the government from money; and (d) either to enforce 100 percent reserve banking on the commercial banks, or at least to arrive at a system where any bank, at the slightest hint of nonpayment of its demand liabilities, is forced quickly into bankruptcy and liquidation. While the outlawing of fractional reserve as fraud would be preferable if it could be enforced, the problems of enforcement, especially where banks can continually innovate in forms of credit, make free banking an attractive alternative.

Congressmen Ron Paul and Dennis Kucinich have introduced bills to abolish the Fed.
And as I noted last week, most Americans want the Fed ended or at least reined in:

At least 75% of the American people want a full audit of the Fed, and most were against reconfirming Bernanke.
Indeed, as Bloomberg noted last December:

A majority of Americans are dissatisfied with the nation’s independent central bank, saying the U.S. Federal Reserve should either be brought under tighter political control or abolished outright, a poll shows.
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Americans across the political spectrum say the Fed shouldn’t retain its current structure of independence. Asked if the central bank should be more accountable to Congress, left independent or abolished entirely, 39 percent said it should be held more accountable and 16 percent that it should be abolished. Only 37 percent favor the status quo.

As I have extensively documented, the Fed is largely responsible for the economic crisis, and has failed to meet a single one of its stated mandates (let alone its implied ones).

Indeed, the Founding Fathers despised the British central bank, and said that the right to create their own credit and currency was one of the core battles in the Revolutionary War.

Obama Is Not the Answer

Libertarians also point out that – while the Obama campaign and Democratic National Committee are trying to hijack the Wall Street protests – they have been part of the problem, not part of the solution.
They point out that Obama has appointed Wall Street insiders to all of his key economic posts, and accepted more money from Goldman Sachs and the other big Wall Street banks than anyone else (and is still raking it in). As such, despite his populist rhetoric, he’s with Wall Street, not the protesters. Indeed, he is Wall Street.
They point out that Obama has continued the process of turning the U.S. into a banana republic, and whether you call it communism, fascism or crony capitalism, Obama has been at least as bad as Bush.
They point out that Obama has been a wolf in sheep’s clothing, someone who thinks high levels of unemployment are good.
They point out that Obama has been more brutal than Bush and has destroyed our liberties even faster than Bush.
For these reasons, libertarians correctly state that re-electing Obama is not the answer. And they note that Ron Paul’s consistent, decades-long positions are much closer to the American peoples’ demands than Obama’s.
Postscript: I voted for Obama. But anyone who still thinks Obama will save us is high.
On the other hand, libertarians have been out of power for a long time. Neoliberals and Neoconservatives – two masks on a single face of corruption – have been in the driver’s seat for decades. Libertarians should welcome the protests as a chance to challenge the status quo, to promote liberty and to end the Fed – the chief enabler of corruption in our country today.
Folks dismissing the Occupy protests as being Obama propaganda or left-wing haven’t yet learned the facts, are blaming the fact that the mainstream Democratic party is trying to infiltrate the movement on the protesters, or are letting Fox, Drudge or other mainstream news sources blow a sub-set of the overall protests out of proportion. See this, this and this. Indeed, as the Associated Press notes, the protesters are fed up with BOTH mainstream parties.

Dawning realizations re Occupy Wall Street

It is slowly dawning on me that I've seen events very similar to Occupy Wall Street.
The first time was on the Great Peace March in 1986 which started out from Los Angeles as a hierarchical mega-PR event with 1200 people and tons of equipment. It suddenly and traumatically went bankrupt in the Mojave Desert two weeks later. 800 marchers went home. 400 marchers didn't. It took them (us) two weeks sitting around an BMX track in Barstow to reorganize with no formal leaders (but tons of ambient leadership) and little support (but tons of vulnerability that soon attracted grassroots support). As we re-started our 3000-mile trek with 400 people, it turned into a 9 month miracle of self-organization (I mean, where DO you put 400 people each night 15 or so miles further down the road?!!), out of which came my first experiences of and ideas about collective intelligence, which led to my life work today. The lives of hundreds of other people were transformed by that March, whose emergent troubadours sang "echoes of our care will last forever..". The folks at Occupy Wall Street are doing a similar experiment in passion-driven self-organization.
The other comparable events I've seen were run by Open Space and World Cafe - especially Open Space. Remember?: The two legs of Open Space are "passion" and "responsibility", which combine into that remarkable guidance formulated by Peggy Holman as "Take responsibility for what you love as an act of service." Are we seeing that in Occupy Wall Street, or what?! Then there's "It starts whenever it starts." "Whoever comes is the right people." "Whatever happens is the only thing that could have" and "When it is over, its over." In Open Space there are two exploratory plenary sharings each day. For most of the day, though, there's no preordained agenda - only people gathering in groups to do what they want to do together. Or being "butterflies" (going off on their own, often stumbling into random conversations) or "bumble-bees" (going from group to group, cross pollinating). No one is "in charge". The whole thing holds together because those who are present share a passion. In Occupy Wall Street, the shared passion is a desire to reclaim human life and community from "Wall Street" - the greed-based, hierarchical corporate-financial system that has colonized and degraded our minds, lives, politics, economics, world, and future. That passion has a thousand manifestations, which are the polyphonous "issues" that swarm around Liberty Square like bees in a meadow.
So I realized: OF COURSE Occupy Wall Street doesn't have "demands." Demonstrations and protests have demands. But although O.W.S. LOOKS like a protest and a demonstration (and occasionally turns into one), it is actually something more, something else: It is a passionate community of inquiry acting itself out as an archetypal improvisational street theater performance embodying, in one hand, people's longings for the world as it could be and, in the other, their intense frustrations with the world as it is. These longings and frustrations reside in the whole society, not just in the occupiers. The occupiers are behaving and reaching out in ways that release and activate those suppressed transformational energies all over the country and world. (Arny and Amy Mindell call such archetypal energies "timespirits" after "Zeitgeist", the spirit of the times.) To think of Occupation Wall Street as primarily a demonstration or protest misses the profound novelty and power of what they are doing. All of us - they and we - are figuring out what it is they are doing as they do it. They are kinda building the road as they travel.
That the whole thing wasn't consciously built according to any plan - that it EMERGED - is both its power and its limitation. We would do well to think about how to combine such powerful spontaneity with transformational processes (like Open Space and World Cafe) that use self-organization to help spread evocative energy from a dynamic center like Occupy Wall Street out into the society, transmuting that society's latent frustrations and longings into a force that can shift the energy of the whole System towards Life. I sense a new form of activism, of citizenship, of aliveness being born here. Each of us gets to ask what role we want to play in that flowing, creative Mystery. And the roles we inevitably play inevitably become part of the inevitable river as the ice inevitably melts...
Coheartedly,
Tom

A few recent insightful articles about Occupy Wall Street
* http://mariamastrippin.blogspot.com/2011/10/on-eve-of-my-trip-to-occupy-bosto...
* http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/mike-friends-blog/occupywallstreet-church-d...
* http://politics.salon.com/2011/10/04/andrew_ross_sorkins_assignment_editor/si...
* http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kathleen-rogers/what-the-environmental-mo_b_994...

World facing worst financial crisis in history, Bank of England Governor says

The world is facing the worst financial crisis since at least the 1930s “if not ever”, the Governor of the Bank of England said last night. 

Sir Mervyn King was speaking after the decision by the Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee to put £75billion of newly created money into the economy in a desperate effort to stave off a new credit crisis and a UK recession.

Economists said the Bank’s decision to resume its quantitative easing [QE], or asset purchase programme, showed it was increasingly fearful for the economy, and predicted more such moves ahead.

Sir Mervyn said the Bank had been driven by growing signs of a global economic disaster.

“This is the most serious financial crisis we’ve seen, at least since the 1930s, if not ever. We’re having to deal with very unusual circumstances, but to act calmly to this and to do the right thing.”

Announcing its decision, the Bank said that the eurozone debt crisis was creating “severe strains in bank funding markets and financial markets”.
The Monetary Policy Committee [MPC] also said that the inflation-driven “squeeze on households’ real incomes” and the Government’s programme of spending cuts will “continue to weigh on domestic spending” for some time to come.
The “deterioration in the outlook” meant more QE was justified, the Bank said.
Financial experts said the committee’s actions would be a “Titanic” disaster for pensioners, savers and workers approaching retirement. Sir Mervyn suggested that was a price worth paying to save the economy from recession.
Under QE, the Bank electronically creates new money which it then uses to buy assets such as government bonds, or gilts, from banks. In theory, the banks then use the cash they gain to increase their lending to businesses and individuals.
By increasing the demand for gilts, QE pushes down the interest rate yields paid to holders of these and other bonds. Critics of the policy say it pushes up inflation and drives down sterling.
The National Association of Pension Funds yesterday called for urgent talks with ministers to address the negative impact of lower gilt yields on pension funds. Joanne Segars, its chief executive, said QE makes it more expensive for employers to provide pensions and will weaken the funding of schemes as their deficits increase. “All this will put additional pressure on employers at a time when they are facing a bleak economic situation,” she said.
Ros Altman, of Saga, said the latest round of QE was “a Titanic disaster” that would increase pensioner poverty. As well as fuelling inflation, she said, falling bond yields would make annuities more expensive, “giving new retirees much less pension income for their money and leaving them permanently poorer in retirement”.
The MPC also voted to keep the Bank Rate at its historic low of 0.5 per cent, another decision that hurts savers. Yesterday, protesters outside the Bank’s headquarters smashed a giant piggy bank to symbolise the situation of pensioners and others forced to raid savings to keep up with the rising cost of living.
Asked about the plight of savers, Sir Mervyn said it was more important to support the wider economy than to support them. He suggested that savers would not be helped by deliberately pushing the British economy into recession. Yesterday’s decision was the first move on QE since 2009, during the global credit crisis, when the Bank injected £200 billion into the economy.
Some analysts believe that this round of QE could be less effective than the previous one, forcing the Bank to create even more money this time.
Michael Saunders of Citigroup, forecast that there could be as much as £225 billion more QE by next year. “I think they will do lots more QE,” he said. “It’s both that the economy is weak but also that the MPC’s view is that QE is not a very powerful tool, or rather it takes a large amount of QE to have much effect on the economy.”
The Bank is supposed to keep inflation near a target of 2 per cent. Inflation now stands at 4.5 per cent, and the Bank admitted it is likely to hit 5 per cent as soon as this month. The Bank’s own research shows that as well as stimulating the economy, QE pushes up prices.
Sir Mervyn insisted that yesterday’s move was still consistent with the 2 per cent inflation target, saying that the slowing economy means inflation could actually fall below that mark “by the end of next year or in 2013”.
The Governor insisted that the MPC’s decisions had been the correct response to events. “The world economy has slowed, America has slowed, China has slowed, and of course particularly the European economy has slowed,” he said. “The world has changed and so has the right policy response.”
City traders took heart from the Bank’s move to boost growth, with the FTSE 100 rising 3.7 per cent to 5,29, its biggest two-day gain since 2008.
The Bank’s decision came after mounting political pressure from ministers worried that Sir Mervyn was not reacting urgently enough to the darkening global economic outlook.
George Osborne, the Chancellor, welcomed the Bank’s move, saying: “The evidence shows that it [QE] will help keep interest rates down and boost demand and that will be a help for British families.”

Wall Street protesters fed up with both parties

NEW YORK (AP) — Their chief target is Wall Street, but many of the demonstrators in New York and across the U.S. also are thoroughly disgusted with Washington, blaming politicians of both major parties for policies they say protect corporate America at the expense of the middle class.
"At this point I don't see any difference between George Bush and Obama. The middle class is a lot worse than when Obama was elected," said John Penley, an unemployed legal worker from Brooklyn.
The Occupy Wall Street movement, which began last month with a small number of young people pitching a tent in front of the New York Stock Exchange, has expanded nationally and drawn a wide variety of activists, including union members and laid-off workers. Demonstrators marched Thursday in Philadelphia, Salt Lake City, Los Angeles and Anchorage, Alaska, carrying signs with slogans such as "Get money out of politics" and "I can't afford a lobbyist."
The protests are in some ways the liberal flip side of the tea party movement, which was launched in 2009 in a populist reaction against the bank and auto bailouts and the $787 billion economic stimulus plan.
But while tea party activists eventually became a crucial part of the Republican coalition, the Occupy Wall Street protesters are cutting President Barack Obama little slack. They say Obama failed to crack down on the banks after the 2008 mortgage meltdown and financial crisis.
"He could have taken a much more populist, aggressive stance at the beginning against Wall Street bonuses, and exacting certain change from bailing out the banks," said Michael Kazin, a Georgetown University history professor and author of "American Dreamers," a history of the left. "But ultimately, the economy has not gotten much better, and that's underscored the frustration on both the right and the left."
Obama on Thursday acknowledged the economic insecurities fueling the nearly 3-week-old Wall Street protests. But he pinned responsibility on the financial industry and on congressional Republicans he says have blocked his efforts to kick-start job growth.
"I think people are frustrated and the protesters are giving voice to a more broad-based frustration about how our financial system works," he said at a nationally televised news conference. "The American people understand that not everybody has been following the rules, that Wall Street is an example of that ... and that's going to express itself politically in 2012 and beyond."
The president has been pushing for a $443 billion jobs plan to be paid for in part through a tax on the wealthy. Republicans have resisted such tax increases.
GOP presidential candidates Mitt Romney and Herman Cain have criticized the anti-Wall Street protests. All the Republican contenders have also pushed back against the demonization of Wall Street. They accuse the Obama administration of setting regulatory policies that have stifled job creation and say his health care overhaul will prevent many businesses from hiring new workers.
In Zuccotti Park, the center of the Occupy Wall Street protests in New York, activists expressed deep frustration with the political gridlock in Washington. While some blamed Republicans for blocking reform, others singled out Obama.
"His message is that he's sticking to the party line, which is 'we are taking care of the situation.' But he's not proposing any solutions," said Thorin Caristo, an antiques store owner from Plainfield, Conn.
But Robert Arnow, a retired real estate worker, said the Republicans need to tell their congressional leaders, "You're standing in the way of change."
Quacy Cayasso, a Web designer, didn't watch Obama's news conference even though it was broadcast on TV monitors at the protest site in New York.
"He's a cool president, but he was given a hard task," Cayasso said. "He should get some gratitude for what he's done so far, but he's been overlooking jobs and not putting much effort into that until now."
Associated Press writer Patrick Walters in Philadelphia contributed to this story.

Copyright © 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

IMF advisor says we face a Worldwide Banking Meltdown

Occupy Wall Street Vs. Erin Burnett: A Primer In Media Failure

Yesterday, Salon's Glenn Greenwald did a fairly masterful job filleting the myopic and condescending way CNN's new hire Erin Burnett chose to cover the ongoing Occupy Wall Street demonstrations. Greenwald is hardly alone in his criticism. The Baltimore Sun's David Zurawik did much the same, saying, "Two of the fundamental attributes of good journalism are curiosity and a respect for the people on whom you report. Burnett got an "F" on both those counts with her Occupy Wall Street piece." Yesterday, I pointed to Jay Rosen, who highlighted short-lived tweets from CNN's Alison Kosik, documenting the fact that the failings Zurawik notes appear to be systemic at CNN.
(New York Magazine's Sarah Frank made note of the fact that Burnett's most noteworthy segment is a fairly weak rip-off of a Saturday Night Live gag, but this probably says more about the fact that CNN is running out of ideas than it does about Burnett.)
Here's the part of Greenwald's piece that really jumped out at me:

I'd bet that these two CNN personalities...would genuinely find the suggestion that they are not objective to be baffling and offensive. That's because their world begins and ends with Jamie Dimon, Citigroup executives, and Columbus Circle corporate galas. To them, Truth is what is found in that world and nothing else. When someone like Kosik sneers at concerns over mass joblessness, hopeless debt, foreclosures, and oligarchical control of the political process, she's not being a conscious propagandist; she's just being honest. Those problems don't exist in their world except as abstractions.

True. That. This is something I've banged on about before -- the signature failing of the media, in the way they've deigned to cover the massive unemployment crisis in America, is that they treat the people who are actually unemployed as abstract concepts. The norm that the media constantly, redundantly enforces is that the unemployment crisis is an event that solely threatens the re-election hopes of politicians, to whom they crave access.
No one craves access to poor people! So they remain in the background, where they can be easily abused. You see this play out when those who are allowed to be newsmakers depict the unemployed as lazy, shiftless and living off government largesse. You need only spend ten minutes on Google to uncover enough material fact to obliterate this notion so utterly that you can objectively state these charges are wrong with a clear journalistic conscience. But you have to be nominally invested in ordinary human beings to do that. It's the desire to serve ordinary Americans with the truth that pushes you onto that task. Without it, the "unemployed are lazy" lie becomes just one more interesting point of view.
The difference between the journalism that makes an investment in the lives of ordinary people and the journalism that doesn't is staggering. When you talk to a journalist who is so invested, you hear someone who sounds like this. When you leave the confines of the Beltway to report on what health care is like for average Americans, you get stories like this. When you actually start talking to the people who are getting ground up in the economic downturn, it produces stories such as these. And if you visit the workplaces of Americans who are fortunate to have a job, you're likely to find a horror story.
Burnett, for one, doesn't fit into this journalistic milieu. Greenwald makes that evident when he points out that she "featured a video clip of herself explaining to one of the protesters that the U.S. Government made money from TARP, and then demanded to know if that changed his negative views of Wall Street."

Why on earth would that fact form the basis for having positive views of Wall Street? Let me kick this to the Daily Bail, who correctly notes that Burnett "didn't do her bailout research before she decided to ridicule protesters for not doing doing their bailout research."

According to the U.S. Treasury's own figures, available publicly to any reader, including pneumatic (we understand if you need a dictionary for that one, Erin) and arrogant CNN reporters, as of TODAY, taxpayers are still more than $95 BILLION IN THE RED on TARP. And that's including all interest and other income. There is still $122 BILLION of TARP funds that have NOT yet been paid back. We understand that Burnett was excluding GM, but she somehow missed that AIG, alone, still owes over $50 BILLION.

Beyond that, Burnett surely knows that TARP formed a mere sliver of the taxpayer money that went toward bailing Wall Street bankers out of the jam they made for themselves. She's surely aware of the fact that as recently as August, the American taxpayers were still owed $1.5 trillion from those efforts.
And it defies credulity to think that Erin Burnett doesn't know that the deal she's touting, that allowed the "U.S. Government [to make] money from TARP," was nothing to write home about, unless the letter you're penning reads: "Dear Mom, did you hear about how badly taxpayers got hosed in the deal structure of TARP? Here's an article from Bloomberg's Mark Pittman explaining it. Here's another Bloomberg piece from Mark Fisher titled, 'How the U.S. Blew Trillion-Dollar Trade of Century.' Erin Burnett said what now?"
Since I'm generously assuming that Burnett has some passing familiarity with mainstream financial reporting and access to the same material facts as the rest of us, I suppose it raises the question, "Was Burnett trying to mislead that demonstrator?" Oddly enough, I don't think that's the case. You actually have to have an investment in someone to lie to them. Rather, I think that this is all part and parcel of the interaction between a condescending pundit and a human being they've decided to treat as an abstraction. It's Burnett saying, "This is all the explanation you deserve. This is all you're capable of understanding. This is all you're going to get."
In other words: "You don't merit my best work." And from what I've seen in terms of how the financial crisis' impact on ordinary Americans is covered, "You don't merit my best work" seems to be the guiding philosophy.
Ordinary Americans have found themselves dropped in a world of stark terms and desperate choices, and those who are lucky to be treading water or doing well are nevertheless just as likely to know someone very dear to them who are in the jaws of this crisis. Faced with this reality, what do you imagine actual people might do to try to cut through the veil and stop getting treated as abstractions? Well, for starters, they might take to the streets. The media is awash in confusion, even now, about what the Occupy Wall Street "agenda" is, and what the demonstrators are "demanding." I'd say their demands begin with "acknowledge our existence," and move on to "make a nominal investment to covering what is happening in our lives."
At a minimum, they've a right to demand that much. After all, the folks gathered in Zuccotti Park are probably keenly aware that some mass movements have been deemed deserving of corporate media sponsorship and co-branding.
Speaking of: Hey, CNN! When have you scheduled the Occupy Wall Street/CNN 2012 debate?
READ THE WHOLE THING:
Erin Burnett: Voice of the People [Glenn Greenwald @ Salon]
CNN's new host Erin Burnett: Smug, superficial and acting like she knows [Z on TV]
[Would you like to follow me on Twitter? Because why not? Also, please send tips to tv@huffingtonpost.com -- learn more about our media monitoring project here.]

Occupy Portland: Protesters march, begin to fill Pioneer Courthouse Square

Enlarge Mike Zacchino, The Oregonian Portland, Oregon -- October 6, 2011 -- People march through downtown Portland. Ross William Hamilton/The Oregonian Occupy Portland gallery (79 photos)

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Demonstrators, many unified by feelings of social and economic injustice, are gathering in Portland on Thursday as part of the Occupy Wall Street movement.

Loosely organized, Portland demonstrators say they plan to meet at Tom McCall Waterfront Park near the Burnside Bridge, then march through downtown Portland starting at noon. They are expected to gather at Pioneer Courthouse Square later in the day.

3:05 p.m.: Live coverage of the Occupy Portland march moves to a new news story: "Occupy Portland: March leads to protest at Pioneer Courthouse Square" Join the conversation there.

3:03 p.m: From The Oregonian's Alison Barnwell: Chanting "this is what democracy looks like," the Occupy Portland crowd is now filling Pioneer Square. Organizer Ivy Knight says: "We didn't expect this big of a turnout. New York started organizing in January; we started two weeks ago."

2:55 p.m.: From The Oregonian's Maxine Bernstein via Twitter: #occupyportland: march turns east down SW Yamhill and heads into Pioneer Courthouse Square: "Whose square? Our square!"

2:53 p.m.: From The Oregonian's Maxine Bernstein: An orderly crowd of an estimated 4,000 are marching up SW Broadway, drawing out business owners, shoppers and hotel guests to witness the demonstration and take photos.

"Oh, it's another day in Portland, " said Lindsey B, who came out for a smoke break and watched the march up Broadway.

2:51 p.m.: From Portland Police via Twitter: March reaches Broadway and Morrison

2:48 p.m.: From Portland Police via Twitter: #OccupyPortland Waterfront Park has just emptied out. There is now a tail to the march.

2:47 p.m: From Portland Police via Twitter: March approaching Stark on Broadway. Crowd now estimated at more than 4,000.

2:46 p.m.: The Oregonian's Maxine Bernstein via Twitter: #occupyportland march: turning up SW Broadway: "Peaceful march for the people...this is our state..this is our country...this is our planet"

2:45 p.m.: From The Oregonian's Elliot Njus via Twitter:  Crowd is letting trains pass #occupyportland

Protesters gather for Occupy Portland march People gathered in Waterfront Park for the Occupy Portland protest this morning, rallying for the march through downtown later in the afternoon. Watch video

2:43 p.m.: From Portland Police via Twitter: #OccupyPortland march is turning on to Broadway from Burnside.

2:41 p.m.: From the Oregonian's Elliot Njus via Twitter: Police seem to know route... Or be good guessers. Blocked Naito a block from Ash. #occupyportland From Portland Police via Twitter: #OccupyPortland Head of march is at 6th and Burnside moving WB.

2:39 p.m.: From The Oregonian's Maxine Bernstein:  Ashley Anderson, 25, of Portland , holding a "Power to the Peaceful, not the Corrupt" sign and a clown mask, said she and friends are wearing the mask because "It's not about the individual. It's about the group...power of the people."

Whose street? Our Streets!
This is What Democracy Looks Like!
Banks Got Bailed Out, We Got Sold Out!
Bike cops riding along the side...

2:36 p.m.: From Portland Police via Twitter: #OccupyPortland Head of march is approaching Burnside on 3rd.

From The Oregonian's Owen Smith via Twitter: Crowd stretching numerous city blocks. Chants of 'our streets.' #occupyportland

2:33 p.m.: From The Oregonian's Elliot Njus via Twitter: Now back toward Burnside. A little confusion. #occupyportland

From Portland Police via Twitter: #OccupyPortland march has begun. NB Naito blocked at Pine and SB Naito blocked at Couch. #OccupyPortland March is passing 1st on Ash.

2:29 p.m.: From the Oregonian's Elliot Njus via Twitter: March begins, but not headed toward Burnside as expected. Headed down waterfront. #occupyportland

2:25 p.m.: From The Oregonian's Elliot Njus via Twitter: Crowd is getting impatient near me. "Let's get this show on the road," someone yells. #occupyportland

2:22 p.m.: From The Oregonian's Elliot Njus via Twitter: Speaker: "Safety from police is not guaranteed ... But we can police ourselves." Says to make friends, stay calm. #occupyportland

From The Oregonian's Max Bernstein: Portland Police estimate the crowd at 3,00-4,000 people.

2:19 p.m.: From Oregonian reporter Elliot Njus via Twitter: People's mic breaks down when someone says something and the crowd isn't on board #occupyportland But loudest repeat so far was for "This is a peaceful march." #occupyportland

2:15 p.m.: ILWU and Pacific NW Regional Council of carpenters represented. Unions joined NY protest this week.

2:08 p.m.: Karen Anna, of Portland, holding her 2-year-old grandson, said she's concerned about his future. She stood on the edge of Waterfront Park with the crowd.

"I think there's so so many issues it's hard to focus on any one," Anna said. "I feel there's such a difference in opportunities in the country today."

Her daughter, Amanda, said she's worried about her son's future, considering the high price of a good education. "Almost everyone I know is in some kind of financial turmoil," she said.

As a rally continues in Waterfront Park, the crowd across the street at Southwest Ankeny Plaza is growing. People are playing drums, and harmonica, and talking about soon marching to Pioneer Courthouse Square.

The crowd is mixed with all ages, elderly to young children carried in baby carriers or strollers. So far, the gathering is professional and peaceful. Police on bikes are staying back.

2:04 p.m.: Sam Zapporah, 25, of Portland, originally from Boise, says she participated in protests when she was younger, but they were more angry. She brought an infant (won't march) for whom she's a nanny. "I feel really safe. It's really special that I could bring an infant here." she's been an advocate for pregnant women. Says, "when you're in pain, any sort of pain, it's usually a communication from your body you need to move or change. It's a clear message." says that applies to protest.

I've seen a number of folks with kids on the edges.

Dick Uhl, 83, of Portland, says he's been protesting since Vietnam War. Says it's a pretty diverse crowd, esp in age. "It's nice to see a little gray here."

There's a line of people who want to talk. Can't get everyone, but promise a cance in pioneer square.

On fringe, observers, few campers. More backpacks in the middle.


1:59 p.m.: People making up the gathering crowd are all ages -- from elderly to 20-somethings to very young kids with their parents.

1:52 p.m.: From Portland Police on Twitter: Officers at Waterfront Park report a peaceful crowd and welcoming of Police presence. #occupyportland

1:44 p.m.: Ted Pyle, of Vancouver, holding a bullhorn to his mouth, is walking along Southwest Naito Parkway, shouting, "Good jobs and benefits for all workers!" And "High unemployment is a failure of business, not government."

Pyle of Jobs with Justice and The Unemployed Coaliton, said he wants America "to use the laws to mandate good jobs and benefits."

Richard Beetle, business manager of Laborers Local 43 representing Portland city transportation, parks and environmental services employees, stood beside a huge, blown up character at Waterfront Park.

"It's the fat cat choking the worker," Beetle explained. "We're concerned about the unemployment in the city of Portland."

1:38 p.m.: Terence King, 61, of Estacada, a retired millwright, says: "I want to see an end to corporate capitalism. I think we need to have more labor-ism and less capitalism. ... Currently we have a money-centric capitalism, to the point that people on Wall Street truly believe you can make money with money when the truth is you need labor and money to create wealth. ... I'm very concerned with the rise in poverty. I believe this current situation is driving up the poverty rate. When you have great poverty, my fear is the person who may have the answers might be in one of those situations and never be heard."

1:36 p.m.: From Oregonian reporter Elliot Njus: #occupyportland speaker says they've talked to the police, will march in the street (vs sidewalk).

1:20 p.m.: Members of Portland's chapter of Veterans for Peace are gathered on Southwest Naito, waiting for the march.
Holding a flag and wearing a black "Veteran for Peace" beret, Harvey Thorstad said he's participating because he's disturbed that "our country is being taken over by corporations and the military is spending billions on the wars." He said a hundred of the group's members participated in a similar event in Washington, D.C.

Zeb Krieger , wearing a chicken suit and holding a sign that reads, "The sky is fallin" said he wants people to smile a bit amid the gloom. "We've got to change before the sky falls," Krieger said.

Crowds are swelling at Waterfront Park, with ralliers holding signs and shouting chants as cars drive by beeping their horns in solidarity.

Occupy Portland

» Follow The Oregonian's coverage of Thursday's Occupy Portland demonstration.

» Photos from Thursday's protest.

» Live stream from Occupy Portland.

1:18 p.m.: Jesse Firestone, 24, of Portland, says: "Mostly I'm out here because I find myself more frustrated with complacency and cynicism than being disorganized. It's better to be out here than doing nothing at all. ... There is no singular thing people are frustrated with. I think that people trying to distill that frustration down to a single thing is why I'm here. ... It's impossible for people to get unbiased information from any source unless they get it themselves."

1:05 p.m.: From Oregonian reporter Maxine Bernstein: Julie Mainwaring and Jennifer Lohse are headed to the demonstration. Mainwaring said she was spurred on by her friend's 80-year-old mother who told her "This could be the start of something huge." Lohse said she's coming to learn more, excited by the possibilities of a grass-roots movement. "I know it's about money. I know it's about Wall Street. I know I have little say about both as a middle-class American," Lohse said.

12:57 p.m.: From Oregonian videographer Joel Odom: "Who are we? We're the 99%," the demonstrators chant at #OccupyPortland.

12:49 p.m.: From Oregonian reporter Elliot Njus: #occupyportland protesters using "people's mic" to communicate. Speaker yells, others repeat so everyone can hear. "This is a nonviolent protest," says one speaker. "I love you all." #occupyportland

12:42 p.m. From Twitter: Portland Police are looking forward to a safe and peaceful event. #occupyportland #staysafe

12:15 p.m.
At the waterfront: Hundreds of people are milling at the Saturday Market fountain area near the Burnside Bridge. They're dressed for the cool, cloudy day. Young and old alike. Many are toting signs: "End the Fed" is a popular sentiment. Others read: "Greed is Bad," "Politicians are your enemy." "Fight greed."

10:55 a.m.: Portland Mayor Sam Adams released this statement Thursday morning:

A group called Occupy Portland has announced plans to peacefully assemble in Waterfront Park today at noon, march through downtown, and ultimately occupy a downtown park or other location. The Occupy Wall Street movement started in New York City and "Occupy" events like these have happened in dozens of cities across the country in recent weeks, from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C. The vast majority of these events have been conducted peacefully.

The City of Portland has been preparing for the Occupy Portland event, with a goal of facilitating a peaceful, effective, and orderly event where everyone is safe.

Representatives of the City of Portland and the Portland Police Bureau have outreached to those helping to organize Occupy Portland activities, and have encouraged the group to obtain a permit and/or share their planned march route and gathering spots. A permit allows the Police Bureau, TriMet, and other agencies to plan for a safe, peaceful, and lawful event. Occupy Portland has so far not obtained a permit; regardless, the Police Bureau will be working to facilitate a safe and orderly procession. Obviously there may be disruptions in vehicle, pedestrian, and TriMet traffic in the downtown core on Thursday afternoon, beginning at noon.

I support Portlanders in their right to protest and exercise free speech rights, and I encourage all who participate to do so peacefully and with respect to the rights of others. Most of the people that are going to participate in Occupy Portland--as with most of the participants in cities across the country--are there to voice their legitimate concerns about national issues. A peaceful event is the most effective way for participants to deliver that message.

Updates regarding this or any event impact at public alerts and via Twitter @PublicAlerts.

Sincerely,

Sam Adams

Mayor

Occupy Portland put out a map of the planned route.

Related topics: occupy portland