The core issue is the monopoly powers of money creation by the US Federal Reserve.The Central Banks created this problem and now are making it worse.

Jay:

Four bucks a bottle of water!? Hell, we oughta organize a separate protest against that.

(To be fair, I'm not in Australia at the moment, so my indignation is hypothetical).

To be honest, I don't think Australia is quite as justified in taking to the streets over this issue. Our regulatory institutions and banks are quite a bit more strict than their US counterparts, which is why our housing market and banks didn't collapse quite so spectacularly as theirs did - we didn't have as many toxic loans. (Granted, it's more complex than that and you've got to factor in China resource demand and whatnot, but the fact remains that we're not quite where the US is).

pelican:

Not sure if I agree with you. Allow me to offer a contrasting situation:
There's a G20 meeting coming up in France soon. Protesters are gathering on the streets, but their goal is much more focused - they're pushing the G20 to support a tax on financial transactions. Instead of venting general fury against the status quo and rich fatcats on Wall Street, they have a single specific goal. This means we can more easily measure their success and it puts lawmakers in a position of having to justify why they don't support such a tax.

It also means they have the chance to score support from people in senior positions, who might be hesitant to support amorphous protest groups who may one day become a liability - it's far easier to support a proposal than a group, because you don't risk being damned by association. The financial transactions tax has scored support from EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, who says the tax could raise 55 billion each year, which would be taken from the pockets of the wealthiest members of society, taxing them the way taxes like GST tax the rest of us doing other forms of businss.

Arjay,
Unless the focus of the "occupations" are the abolition of usury they're misdirected.
The banksters rely on the authority they get from "democratic" governments, as in past times they are legitimised by their association with Kings, the churches and temples etc. The problem is as old as civilisation, there are some who'd argue that civilisation itself is a product of those relationships, that the parasites created their own host.
The only real answer to this corruption is a non hierarchical society, no gods, no masters = no banksters.

Occupy Wall Street and "The American Autumn": Is It a "Colored Revolution"?
Part I
by Michel Chossudovsky

http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=27053

I think the Indonesians should have a 'sit in'as our rotton capitalist system gives dole bludgers a far higher standard of living than most of them could dream of. That's right they need to earn a living to feed themselves even if they only earn $2 a day.

We all can learn from contributions to this thread.
Some views fixed and bigoted at the same time are also uninformed.
Think the right, seeing this as a leftist thing are unconcerned that they too, are victims.
Also think, strongly, the very left do much harm to an issue that should be across the board.
The Violence? how truly stupid, it defeats the purpose of the whole thing.
Just maybe that is the reason for it.