I passed by one of the Occupy sites in London the other day which appeared remarkably smaller than before Christmas. A lonely Christmas tree with a Santa attached to it stood outside one of the tents which all seemed empty. Having started as a protest against political climate in wake of the crisis in the US, it initially attracted a lot of participants and support. Something appears to have changed though. Local businesses are starting to suffer, residents are getting tired of the mess in their neighbourhood.  But so also do the political parties that were originally supportive are starting to become weary as became clear from a General Assembly at Occupy Amsterdam.

Having established that at the General Assembly it is customary that whenever someone says something it is repeated by everyone else, the Mayor of Amsterdam (in case you wonder, he is left wing) decided to use it to his own advantage.  It only took a split second to come up with “tomorrow, we will all bugger off and find a job”. Few of the crowd repeated “tomorrow” before it sank in. After that, complete silence.

The underlying ideas are still going strong, but perhaps it is time for a rethink on execution strategy.

Dr Natalie Schoon, CFA