Memories Of Zuccotti Park
I was organizing old photos the other night when I came across a few which I took while visiting Zuccotti Park almost exactly 14 years ago. It was right at the end of the “Occupy Wall Street” protests. I was working in lower Manhattan that day, so I spent some time roaming around the site. Excuse the poor resolution. I was probably using some early Motorola android phone to take them. To put things in context, this was a few years after the news headline that inspired Satoshi’s genesis block inscription:
It was pretty sad. The space itself was much smaller than what I expected from watching the protests on television. It was a cold, rainy, November day. Most of the crowd had makeshift rain ponchos. A few of them were willing to talk. It was a far cry from the well funded, performative and destructive productions we have gotten used to watching from Soros, Inc. The protesters all stood inside the cage erected around the park by the NYPD. There were some handwritten signs and some chants complaining about the bailouts. I noticed a few old gray ponytailed hippies trying to distribute their socialist pamphlets, but from the accents I could tell that most of these people were local New Yorkers. Many had lost their homes to foreclosure recently. They couldn’t comprehend why they didn’t get a bailout along with the banks. It was a polite, pathetic little scene. They were like zoo animals in their cages.
Zuccotti Park wasn’t originally chosen as the site for the protests. The police herded people there so that Wall Street’s business could continue uninterrupted. Soon though, the park was embraced by the movement because of its location, its legal status, and its historical significance.
First of all, it was a POPS, a privately owned public space. The property owner is required by local zoning laws to keep it open to the public. These spaces are maintained by owners who were granted concessions by the municipality, like height restriction wavers and property tax breaks- the perfect product of crony capitalism. It is quasi private, kind of like the way the Federal Reserve is often described. Because it is a public space, no one could be accused of trespassing, and the park never closed. People began sleeping there overnight.
United States Steel originally built the park, then called Liberty Plaza Park, in exchange for the rights to demolish older buildings and erect a fifty four story skyscraper nearby. The name was changed after the park was heavily damaged in the September 11 attacks.
At the time of the protests, Zuccotti Park was owned by Brookflield Properties. Thanks to the TARP Program, Brookfield recovered quickly from the financial crisis and was soon thriving, enjoying those near zero percent interest rates that continued all the way to 2015.
The (soon to be former) homeowners I saw wearing ponchos that day didn’t have a spot at the Cantillon trough.
The Site’s Historical Significance
Zuccotti Park is the site of the first coffeehouse to open in Colonial America. It was called The King’s Arms, and opened in 1696. On November 5, 1773, the Sons Of Liberty organized a large protest of the Tea Act in front of the coffeehouse. This may have been the first public protest of the tax. Months later New York had its own small tea party.
Larry Fink
Larry Fink and BlackRock spearheaded the bailouts that Satoshi memorialized and these people were protesting against.
Before forming BlackRock, Fink had traded mortgage backed securities (MBS) at First Boston. Some of these products were the toxic assets that were a catalyst of the financial crisis. Who better than him to solve the problem? BlackRock was hired by the U.S. government to analyze and manage the bailout of major financial institutions- the fox guarding the hen house. By this point Fink was the ultimate political and financial insider. Larry did express sympathy for the poor suckers who actually had to suffer while he and his buddies grew richer:
"We have to admit, as members of the financial press and the financial community…Washington…we really did let down a lot of people… To resolve this we have to admit it."
What did he do to resolve it? Nothing. Instead, BlackRock’s power grew. When Hillary Clinton ran as the democratic nominee against Donald Trump in 2016, Larry Fink was expected to be named Treasury Secretary if she had won the election.
Remember covid? Remember how the entire economy shut down, except for those the government decided could keep operating? Guess who advised the federal reserve on their asset buying program? Yep. Larry and BlackRock.
Billionaire investor Sam Zell once said "I didn't know Larry Fink had been made God…"
Today, BlackRock is the world’s largest asset manager. They manage funds for companies, pension funds, and governments. It is the largest shareholder in many S&P 500 companies. It advises central banks throughout the world.
Larry once called bitcoin "the domain of money launderers and thieves." Now he likes it. In fact, he likes it so much that BlackRock’s bitcoin ETF is the largest bitcoin ETF, by far.
Welcome To The Machine
Many of us in the bitcoin community have embraced these ETFs. It’s a real hassle having to custody your own bitcoin. Coinbase is reputable. We’re sure they have the bitcoin they say they have. This is what adoption looks like.
Many of us in the community have no problem with bitcoin treasury companies either. Like Saylor says, who needs those crazy anarchist cypherpunks and their “hold your own keys” stuff? Embracing Wall Street, with its futures contracts,options, margin loans and derivatives is what adoption looks like.
Many of us in the bitcoin community have no problem begging the US government to embrace bitcoin. We can trust the government, right? This is what adoption looks like. We can trust Trump, right? What’s a few shitcoin rugpulls among friends? This is what adoption looks like.
Bullshit.
You want Larry in charge? Four D chess? Don't underestimate the guy sitting across the table from you. The Trojan Horse? Remember, that was myth, not history.
Bitcoin will survive and thrive, but that’s not the point. Why embrace the system that bitcoin was created to destroy? Start using it as money, not as a plaything for financiers. Help build a new system from the ground up. Don't worry about Larry. He still has those eth ETFs. He'll survive too.
KEEP BITCOIN WEIRD
I’m not optimistic. It’s been over 10 years now that all the OGs know this, that anyone who enters and understands knows this, yet they keep hyping gurus and scammers. I do my part for myself while trying to warn those I interact with.