Occupy Everywhere & Economic News Round-Up

[Oakland Men's Wearhouse. Photo tweeted by Oakland Tribune reporter Matt O'Brien.
The Guardian's live coverage of the Occupy Oakland General Strike is here. InsideBayArea's live coverage is here.

In a bitterly emblematic incident, a Mercedes driver hit two protesters in Oakland last night, delivering non-life-threatening leg and ankle injuries to the woman and man who were hit. The police questioned the driver, then let him go.

Back in New York [trigger warning], a 26-year-old man has been arrested after allegedly sexually assaulting two teenage women in Zuccotti Park. #OccupyRapeCulture

CNN reports that Occupy Wall Street is gaining favor among USians:

As Americans learn more about Occupy Wall Street, they are becoming more supportive of the movement's positions, according to a new poll from ORC International.

The survey, taken Oct. 28-31, shows more adult Americans saying they have heard of Occupy Wall Street than when the question was asked in early October. Sixty-four percent of respondents now say they've heard of the movement, compared to only 51% in the earlier poll.

The new poll also shows more Americans supporting the movement. Thirty-six percent say they agree with the overall positions of Occupy Wall Street, while 19% say they disagree.

Nearly any protest movement that can just hang in there inevitably grains credibility among the general population, for the sheer appearance of having unwavering principles and not just being the dirty hippies/crackpots/fools/lowlifes/extremists/whatever that their opponents, with the help of the media, make them out to be.

In US domestic news...

BBC—US manufacturing growth slows to a crawl: "US manufacturing continued to expand in October, but growth slowed to a snail's pace, according to the latest monthly survey of the sector."

Pat Garofalo at Think Progress—For the First Time Since 2007, Federal Reserve Official Dissents from Central Bank Policy from the Left: "The Federal Reserve today released its latest policy statement, announcing that it is taking no new moves to boost the economy's sluggish growth. However, for the first time since 2007, one of the voting members of the central bank—Chicago Fed President Charles Evans—dissented from the Fed's decision from the left...support[ing] additional policy accommodation at this time."

ABC's The Note—Mitt Romney Directs New Attack at Rick Perry, Telling Him 'Deficits Matter': "Romney's new line of attack comes days after Perry suggested he is less concerned about how his economic plan will affect the federal deficit in the short term and more focused on creating incentives for job creators to spur hiring in the country."

Nate Silver in the New York Times—On Obama's Reelection Chances: "[T]he conventional wisdom long held that Barack Obama would most likely weather his midpresidency slump to win another term. Then came the debt-ceiling debates of July and August, which seemed to crystallize Obama's vulnerabilities in a way that even the Democrats' midterm disaster of 2010 did not. It's probably because he handled the situation so poorly, simultaneously managing to annoy his base, frustrate swing voters, concede a major policy victory to Republicans and—through the fear imported into the market by the brinksmanship in Congress and the credit-rating downgrade that followed—further imperil the economic recovery. ... Obama has gone from a modest favorite to win re-election to, probably, a slight underdog. Let's not oversell this. A couple of months of solid jobs reports, or the selection of a poor Republican opponent, would suffice to make him the favorite again."

In international news...

The Guardian—Greek crisis: PM 'expected to step down today': "Reports are breaking in Athens now that George Papandreou is set to meet with the country's president within the hour. Greek Mega TV claims that following a meeting of his parliamentary group after his cabinet session, the embattled leader will soon visit the president, Helena Smith tells me. This is probably to ask the president to dissolve the government and call early elections. But seperately, the BBC is reporting that Papandreou plan is to step aside and make way for a new coalition government to take over."

CNN—Young Italians fear uncertain future: "Youth unemployment in Italy runs at 28%, well above the eurozone average of 20%. When I asked [Italian youth] how worried [they] were about [their] job prospects, [they] all laughed nervously. 'There is no money in Italy, there is no opportunity,' [they] said."

CNN—Tax evasion is a national pastime afflicting southern Europe: "'Wherever the olive tree grows, you won't find much tax being collected,' the mayor of a small town in southern Spain told me a few years ago. He shrugged; such was life. ... That is partly because of the higher number of self-employed and family businesses [in Greece, Italy, Spain and Portugal], which tend to deal in cash and pay little tax. But to many economic commentators, tax evasion is also a national pastime in much of southern Europe, and a significant factor in the region's burgeoning financial crisis."

The Guardian—G20: Europe faces the nightmare of a euro breakup: "The four members of the eurozone attending the G20 summit—Germany, France, Italy and Spain—were holding talks in Cannes this morning to discuss what to do next. Unsurprisingly, the mood was grim. Splits were appearing in the Greek cabinet, Italian bond yields were rising after Silvio Berlusconi's cabinet came up with no new proposals for tackling Italy's debts and for the first time European leaders have had to confront their worst nightmare: the euro may break up."

BBC—Obama calls for urgent debt deal: "US President Barack Obama has warned that there is still work to be done on how the eurozone can end a financial crisis that threatens engulf the world. Speaking on Thursday ahead of the opening of the G20 summit in France, he said that the most important topic on the agenda was Europe's problems."