US economy: only for the top one per cent?

The financial crisis and a severe unemployment problem have demonstrated to the American people that they now have a government that is of the 1.0 per cent, by the 1.0 per cent and for the 1.0 per cent, as was eloquently articulated earlier by Nobel Prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz and now being highlighted by the participants in 'Occupy Wall Street' movement. The rest of the 99 per cent are, more or less, on their own. The US now has the most unequal distribution of wealth and income among all the major advanced economics. The top 1.0 per cent in the USA earn more income than the bottom 50 per cent, and the richest 400 Americans own more wealth than the bottom 150 million Americans. Now that Occupy Wall Street is shining a spotlight on Wall Street greed and the enormous inequalities that exist in America, the question -- how the political, economic and financial system can be changed to work for all Americans, not just the top 1.0 per cent -- becomes critical for all concerned to find out an answer and, thus, an appropriate remedy. Mortuza Ali Agrabad, Chittagong Much ado about nothing! Narayanganj City Corporation election ended peacefully without the deployment of army. It validates the government belief, that the security measures taken by it were adequate. After all the proof of the 'pudding is in the eating' which has been proven without doubt. The BNP's, as usual, foolish dramatic withdrawal was nothing but a poor and rusted political maneuvering; the usual 'much ado about nothing', which is its common lame excuse for non-performance, has fallen flat on their faces. Even the Election Commission had to eat its words. Finally the locally developed electronic voting machine proved its utility- thanks to the creativity and capability of a group of our electronic experts. I particularly feel proud, that my Alma Mater; BUET, played a significant role in this very important and vital facility; that is really good for the country. Engr S A Mansoor Dhaka NCC polls will not silence demand for CG system It cannot be said absolutely, of course, whether the developments that preceded the holding of the recent Naryanganj City Corporation (NCC) polls were real developments or contrived ones. But the probabilities of contrivance are high. The government did not interfere with the elections. If it did, the favourite of the ruling party, Shamim Osman, would have emerged victorious from the manipulations and muscle flexing. The Election Commission (EC) can also stake out a claim that free and fair polling under it is possible. All these might seem planned to boost the stand of the government that its abolition of the caretaker government system for holding national elections has been justified by recent electoral experiences. However, calculated the move may be, it will not quite take the winds out of the sails of political and other social forces who seem to be clear on their stand that there was no need on the part of the ruling party to unilaterally abolish the caretaker government (CG) system in the absence of a consensual decision on the issue. That the ruling party decided to ignore even the directive of the highest court of the land, the Supreme Court, about holding at least, two next national elections under the CG system, has only helped deepen people's apprehensions that the abolition of the CG system was done expressly with the aim of ultimately 'doctoring' the outcome of the next national election. Thus, events like the NCC polls are most unlikely to change either people's mood or the demand for reinstatement of the CG system for holding the next national elections. Shamim Ahmed Testuribazar Tejgaon, Dhaka