Question from @Larry_Author via Twitter
Well, I think they've given us a memorable meme, and one that's now on just about everyone's lips: "We are the 99 percent." And that's changed the conversation already.
They've brought income inequality to the forefront; many of us, journalists and others, were talking about it for years but could never get the subject on the big marquee. They've even convinced some bankers to take them seriously. For example, Laurence Fink, the CEO of Blackrock, says, "These are not lazy people sitting around looking for something to do. We have people [in this country] losing hope and they're going into the street, whether it's justified or not."
And the CEO of Citigroup says the protesters are "completely understandable. Trust has been broken between financial institutions and the citizens of the U.S., and that,” he says, “is Wall Street's job, to reach out to main street and rebuild that trust." Of course they've been called “imbeciles" by some others in the one percent, but I think that just proves they’ve touched a nerve. They've reminded us that democracy is not what government does; it's what people do. And that organized people are the only answer to organized money. Where they go next, I can't say; I’m a reporter, not a prophet. But it will be interesting, to say the least as a journalist, to stay on the beat, as we intend to do.
