In New York City, they Occupy Wall Street movement has drawn thousands of people to the lower Manhattan area to protest "corporate greed." On one occasion, more than 700 protesters were arrested on the Brooklyn Bridge, sparking what some are calling a new era of dissenters. Meanwhile, in San Francisco, where the make-banks-pay movement has spread, things have been a little more, well, zen.

In case you don't work anywhere near the Financial District and haven't had the chance to see this group in action, here is what an average day for OccupySF protesters looks like:

Alan Scherstuhl

When's lunch?

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MoneyBlogNewz via Flickr

Breaking the bank

​In yet another possible sign that hacking is the most popular pastime among antisocial American youth since Magic: The Gathering, the Bank of America website is experiencing technical difficulties that some are speculating could be part of a reprisal for its announcement of a new fee on debit-card users.

B of A announced the $5 monthly fee for customers who make debit-card purchases yesterday, prompting a storm of criticism for what Gawker memorably dubbed a "negative interest rate."
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​For those who missed our blog post on it last week, we'll say it again: The Economist correspondent Andreas Kluth's special report on dysfunction in California's government is worth a read. Earlier this week, we attended Kluth's talk at the World Affairs Council on Sutter Street, where he offered a few insights beyond what was in his story.

The premise of that story, more or less, was that direct democracy has ruined us. This form of government worked (sort of) for the ancient Athenians, but only because their popular assembly was so small that it met, as Kluth noted Wednesday night, on a single rock. The sort of representative democracy, or republic, envisioned by America's founding fathers has been confounded in California by a vigorous process for legislation through the ballot box -- essentially a fourth, unintended branch of government that has hampered elected lawmakers' ability to meet challenges, particularly in the realm of state finances.

Kluth was pressed repeatedly during the Q&A period of his chat about concrete solutions he would propose for California. He had a few reflections on this subject:

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Now featuring smaller pensions for cops

​With the interminable debate we've witnessed over pension reform during the last year, it's sometimes easy to forget that this isn't just another political shooting match over a characteristically trivial San Franciscan topic. (Dog parks, anyone?) Yet an article published this week in the New York Times shows the pension wagon really can go hurtling off the cliff -- and has, in fact, done so in other municipalities.

As the Times reports, a growing number of cities are slashing pensions, cutting jobs, and shrinking government services. In some cases, pension funds can go bust altogether. The story cites the cautionary tale of Pritchard, Ala., which simply stopped sending checks to its retired employees when its pension fund ran out in 2009. Sure, this contravened state law, but you can't pay out money you don't have.

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​In our cover story this week, we explore the little-publicized form of compensation known as "premium pay" -- a vast range of bonuses available to government employees for performing certain types of work, many of which are in their job descriptions.

Categories of premium pay include bonuses for firefighter-EMTs -- even though all San Francisco Fire Department employees are required to hold EMT certification as a condition of their employment -- and bonuses for engineers who hold emergency-response licenses required by the Public Utilities Commission.

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​Move Will Save State Not Quite Three-Thousandths Of One Percent Of Looming Deficit

The office of Gov.-elect Jerry Brown yesterday announced it would be curtailing the office of inspector general in January as a cost-cutting move.

This, of course, prompts the question "what does the inspector general do?" It certainly sounds important. When we called Brown's office, it became clear that this wasn't a very easy question to answer. We were directed to call the doomed office and ask its walking dead employees what the hell they do all day.

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Hope you've got room in there for the billions you owe Californians...

​The office of Attorney General Jerry Brown announced today that Wells Fargo has agreed in a settlement to offer home-loan modifications worth $2 billion, and will also pay $32 million in restitution to borrowers who lost their homes through foreclosures.

According to a statement from the AG's office, the loans at issue were made not by Wells Fargo but by Wachovia, which the company acquired in 2008; and World Savings, bought by Wachovia in 2006.

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Art Agnos -- yes, that's him on the right -- is ready to step in the mayoral ring once more

​Former Mayor Art Agnos knows what it is to occupy Room 200 during down times. So will whoever wins the task of following Mayor Gavin Newsom. And, like Agnos himself, the former mayor predicts whoever is coming next won't manage a second term.

"Next year, whoever is mayor will have a horrific job with the budget. Not only the city's deficit but the state finally has come smackdab against the wall in dealing with structural deficits rolled over the last five years through various kinds of financial gimmickry," says Agnos, the city's mayor from 1988 to '92.

With both state and federal money the city has grown accustomed to no longer there, Agnos predicted "the city's deficit of $380 million to $400 million could easily swell to double that."

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Times are tough in San Francisco. But they're not Joad Family tough.

​By all measures, San Francisco's job market had a damn good run between September and October. Of course, this is the equivalent of a gambler, deep in the hole, winning a single hand. But you take what you can get.

Per figures just released by the state's Employment Development Department, San Francisco's October unemployment rate dropped to 9.3 percent from 9.6 percent the month prior. The Oct. 2009 unemployment rate was also 9.6 percent -- so, we're better off than we were a year ago.

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Were local tycoons too cheap to bankroll this?

​Nine years after Mayor Willie Brown put in motion a plan to turn the 136-year-old San Francisco's Old Mint at Fifth and Mission Streets into a "21st-century mixed-use cultural center dedicated to the residents and visitors of the Bay Area," the San Francisco Museum and Historical Society is scaling back plans, citing insufficient funds.

Turns out it takes a mint to restore one.

In 2007, the Society announced on its web page they were "asking a select group of community leaders to make lead gifts."

But it seems the tycoons might not have come through with enough money.

"We're looking at re-assessing this project right now to set our sights a little lower," said Society chief operating officer Kurt Nystrom.

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