Laid Off Today

Not that I’m dripping with compassion for laid-off MBAs cast off from the behemoths of Wall Street. What I do appreciate, however (on top of the growing prominence of the hand-made sign as a stimulus for political discourse), is the emotional symbolism here.

A key facet that makes Wall Street so difficult to take on, intentionally so, is its impersonal nature — the fact the organizations and institutions largely defy personalization and (true) personification. This photo presents a dramatic, if transient counter to that effect.

It’s as if one person, having been chewed up and spit out by the unstoppable, unmanageable and largely boundary- and conscience-free capitalist engine, has fallen out of the machine before our eyes. So, while we consumers of visual news otherwise experience that much more disconnection and alienation from stultifying news reports and photos of Obama futilely lecturing financial execs about cleaning up their act, this image, in its small way, calls for more reality, more feeling, more sense, especially as juxtaposed with the President wagging his finger at a great, completely inanimate and impenetrable pinstriped-grey wall.

(image: Larry Downing/Reuters. caption: A crowd of onlookers are gathered outside the historic Federal Hall where U.S. President Barack Obama was speaking in the heart of Wall Street in New York, September 14, 2009. Obama, marking a year since Lehman Brothers collapsed, urged financial firms Monday not to fight regulatory reform and urged Congress to pass his proposals by the end of the year)

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Tags: economy, Federal Hall, laid off, Larry Downing, Lehman Brothers, Obama, Wall Street, Wall Street meltdown

nordmend

“stultifying news reports and photos of Obama futilely lecturing financial execs about cleaning up their act, (and) wagging his finger at a great, completely inanimate and impenetrable pinstriped-grey wall.”
ah, the theatre of it all. wagging his finger, after giving them top posts in his administration, and gazillions of dollars, while the masses shelter under hope and eat change. nice. one can only dread the second act.
photowise, the juxtaposition of laid off workers holding, what, $6000 worth of photo gear strikes me as odd somehow. the new upscale jobless.
i like the highest woman, glancing at the sign holder, as if she’s seeing something for the first time. or, maybe she’s just checkin’ out whether buddy in the white shirt got a better picture than her.
is that a security camera, or a lamppost? or both?
Tena

As far shaking fingers as theater goes – could we all agree that the Executive has no legislative power? Can we please agree that Congress is the responsible body here?
Obama not only gets the entire burden of the broken economy Bush and the Republicans left us, but he apparently has the entire burden to fix the regulations and I really believe that that is not his job.
Aurora

You are just so articulate! I keep sharing this site with my ‘peeps’ because you keep on being brilliant…Blessings on the Work.
http://thenewsguysletters.blogspot.com/ Russ Nichols

Not much sympathy here for Wall Street types who — seems to me — just operate a big Casino of sorts, playing games with exotic financial instruments to make money without actually producing anything of value. And the money they use is ours, through investments and real estate mortgages. Real-life Monopoly with real money. And when they lose, we bail them out. Screw ‘em.
nordmend

executive legislative power or not, obama is the captain and chief cheerleader of the ship, no?
though i agree with you that most of the real power is a layer or two back from him; he’s the front guy, just as bush was. but that’s a damn powerful position, and he (and the rest of the lot, fer sure) need to be held accountable, if that’s possible. did obama not push for the wall street giveaway, i mean bailout? did he not endorse continuing (and escalating) the afghan war? etc, etc. i mean, what exactly has changed, core-operationally, from a year or two or twenty ago, other than the fact that those that were opposed to “bush’s” policies have mostly stood down, awed at a charismatic president (with no legislative power.. who can speak in complete sentences?
what would it take – at what point would american civil society (whom arundhati roy suggested had the most difficult task of any peoples’ in the world – i’m paraphrasing) acknowledge the grand theatre, the “good cop – bad cop”, business-as-usualness of it all?
desertwind

Of course I don’t know for sure, but I think only the sign-holder in this photo was laid off.
I agree with Bag about her. I respect her for making the spontaneous gesture and standing there exposed.
I’ll even bet that any employer would be lucky to have her.
In fact, Obama should have hired her.
http://homelessonthehighdesert.wordpress.com/ Ten Bears

Gosh, she kinda’ looks like one of the gals featured in a recent Playboy Women of Wall Street… uhhmmm, spread.
bystander

Tena, your desire to defend Obama and keep a focus on the legislative branch of government is commendable. But, it is reasonable to inquire of you if you are aware who appoints the Chairman of the Federal Reserve, the Secretary of the Treasury, and the Attorney General? Given that the legislative branch has nearly been fully captured by major corporations vis a vis campaign contributions, it appears that the only route route available for redress of past wrongs, and those persisting presently, is the judicial branch. I recommend One Year After the Meltdown, Wall Street Takes Some Lashings. But, note, those lashings didn’t come from Obama.

For all of Obama’s language, however, it is hard to see much difference so far between the regulatory posture of his administration and that of his predecessor. In both cases, the prescription for Wall Street’s ills seems to come from the wizards of Wall Street—a group of economists, lawyers and bankers huddled around a group of core financial institutions and the Federal Reserve. Obama may talk a tough game, but the medicine he prescribes looks an awful lot like sugar water. - Scott Horton

Indeed, Obama seems perfectly poised to pursue Bush’s blueprint for recovery and regulation. There are a number of routes in which Obama could choose differently than he has, but he hasn’t.
yg

bill clinton’s healthcare plan was crafted first, then handed down to congress who rejected it.
i’ve been wondering if congress is unable to pass a public option, if obama could exercise an executive order and create a public option, then send it back down to congress to fill out the particulars.
the same for tougher wall street regulations. 6 months ago, the senate was unable to pass tougher regs because as durbin pointed out: the banks own the place. there has got to be an mechanism that exists that works as an end run to get around lobbyist influence.
yg

.
http://www.votenader.org/ yg

there is no difference
between obama and bush, just like there was no difference between gore & bush.