With friends like Donald Trump and Vikram Pandit, does Occupy Wall Street need
enemies? Both The Donald and the Citigroup (NYSE: C ) CEO recently have said
that they sympathized with the views of the Occupy Wall Street movement bizarre
statements considering Trump and Pandit are examples of the corporate greed that
has infuriated the masses. Take Trump. There is no greater living symbol of the
excesses of capitalism. For Petes sake, the man sells his own branded water and
the Donald J. Trump Signature collection of apparel! Never mind the ease with
which he navigates bankruptcy ( his companies or properties have filed for
bankruptcy four times ). No, Trump decided that he could speak for the common
man. There is a tremendous fervent and there is something wrong with this
country, Trump said in an interview with Yahoo Finances Daily Ticker . Our
country is blowing up in front of our eyes. Before people get the idea that
Trump has gone all Keith Olbermann, The Donald then added that all those nasty
complaints about income inequality and high unemployment would disappear once
"the economy gets good again." And of course, the one-time presidential
aspirant does not think the current occupant of the White House is up to the job
of turning the economy around. Pandit, whose company received an eye-popping
three federal bailouts , has even more nerve than Trump. He offered to meet with
the protestors, telling Fortune , "Their sentiments are completely
understandable. … The economic recovery is not what we all want it to be,
there are a number of people in our country who cant achieve what they are
capable of achieving and thats not a good place to be. In his mind, greedy banks
have nothing to with these problems. Trump and Pandit are not the only corporate
chieftains and other rich folks siding with the denizens of New York's
Zuccotti Park. In fact, there is a blog dedicated to pictures of so-called 1
percenters who are sympathetic to the plight of the 99 percenters occupying
cities around the country. Trump's fellow casino magnate, Steve Wynn , argued
that Occupy Wall Street is a reflection of public unease about the deficit,
saying on the recent earnings conference call for Wynn Resorts (NASDAQ: WYNN ):
"What you do have on Wall Street is a reflection, a real reflection in my
opinion, of the anxiety, the insecurity and the fear that is endemic in the
United States of America." Earlier this month, Howard Schultz, the CEO of
Starbucks (NASDAQ: SBUX ) who is more politically active than most corporate
leaders, told The Atlantic that Congress lack of a solution could muster the
beginning of anger (and) frustration … that could easily have unintended
consequences that could easily lead to unrest in America." What's an even
scarier thought is the idea that members of the corporate elite are trying to
harness a grassroots anti-corporate movement for their own purposes. As of this
writing, Jonathan Berr did not own a position in any of the aforementioned
stocks. Follow him on Twitter at @jdberr.
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