Wall St protests spread

NEW YORK: Protests against the U.S. financial system and economic inequality spread across America on Thursday and found unlikely sympathy from a top official of one of the main targets of scorn -- the Federal Reserve.

The Occupy Wall Street movement that began in New York last month with a few people expanded to protests in more than a dozen cities.

They included Tampa, Florida; Trenton and Jersey City, New Jersey, Philadelphia, and Norfolk, Virginia, in the East; Chicago and St. Louis in the Midwest; Houston, San Antonio and Austin in Texas; Nashville, Tennessee; and Portland, Oregon, Seattle and Los Angeles in the West.

Dallas Federal Reserve President Richard Fisher surprised a business group in Fort Worth, Texas, on Thursday when he said, "I am somewhat sympathetic -- that will shock you."

The Fed played a key role in one of the protest targets, the 2008 Wall Street bailout that critics say let banks enjoy huge profits while average Americans suffered high unemployment and job insecurity.

"We have too many people out of work," Fisher said. "We have a very uneven distribution of income. We have too many people out of work for too long. We have a very frustrated people, and I can understand their frustration."

President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden also acknowledged the frustration and anger of the protesters on Thursday.

"People are frustrated and, you know, the protesters are giving voice to a more broad-based frustration about how our financial system works," Obama said at a news conference in Washington.

Biden, speaking at the Washington Ideas Forum, likened the protest movement to the Tea Party, which sprang to life in 2009 after Obama's election and has become a powerful conservative grass-roots force helping elect dozens of Republicans to office.

"The American people do not think the system is fair," Biden said. (Reuters)