Back in October 2011, the Occupy Wall Street movement first hit the streets with a breathtaking bang that held all sorts of potential as a radical and powerful vehicle for real change. At the time, I diverted much of my energy from the liberty movement to test out these new activists and discover whether they could be swayed toward the philosophy of liberty and the economic solutions the liberty movement has to offer.
It was a leaderless movement with no stated ideologies or goals other than to bring attention to the growing economic crisis developing not only the U.S., but across the entire globe -- economic issues that libertarians and Austrian economists have been concerned with for decades, and thus have had decades with which to formulate and refine their solutions to these economic problems. Central to the Occupiers' concerns was the growing economic inequality and wealth disparity in America, a wealth gap and disappearing middle class that Austrians have long tied to the Federal Reserve and plutocratic banking elites who manipulate the global economy through their convoluted system of unbacked fiat currency, derivatives, fractional reserve banking, and the reckless flow of easy credit.
Six months into the Occupy movement, however, it appears that the movement is headed down the same destructive financial path as the federal government itself. They are running out of money, and fast. Just like our own federal government (not to mention state and local governments) the Occupy chapter in New York City that is the epicenter of the national movement is spending their money at an alarming pace and are set to run out of money in a few weeks should they continue spending at current levels.
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