Wall Street, Economics, Anthropology & Protests

Lorenz has a good new post about the recent "Occupy Wall Street" protests.  Here's a selection:

While the Guardian is sending an anthropologist on fieldwork among bankers to give us insight in the destructive culture of finance, thousands of people in New York are occupying the Wall Street, “the financial Gomorrah of America” and “greatest corrupter of our democracy”.

Inspired by the massive public protests in Cairo’s Tahrir Square and Madrid’s Puerta del Sol Square, hundreds have slept outside near Wall Street for the past three nights. The campaign “Occupy Wall Street” began on Saturday when thousands gathered in New York City’s Financial District.

As Egyptian researcher Maha Abdelrahman said a few months ago, we might be witness to a global revolutionary movement against neoliberalism.

The post also includes this video of anthropologist David Graeber on Amy Goodman's Democracy Now:

Check out the video, and make sure to read through the entirety of Lorenz's post.  Considering all of the debates about debt these days, it makes sense to look deeper into exactly what it's all about.  I just got Graeber's book recently, and I am looking forward to reading it.  One thing that economic anthropologists add to these discussions that economists tend to forget is HISTORY.