That rant from a financial trader seen at Occupy Chicago actually dates from April, 2010

When I first saw a few days ago the righteous and hilarious “rant” supposedly written by a Chicago financial trader as a rebuttal to Occupy Chicago, I had a suspicion I’d seen it before. A quick visit to Google confirmed what nagged at the back of my mind: It actually has nothing to do with the Occupy movement, because it was written a full year and a half before Occupy Wall Street was an up-twinkle in AdBusters’ eye:

National Review, April 29, 2010: “Derb’s Wall Street “trader” writes in response to political and public anger at the financial industry”

The Atlantic, April 30, 2010: “Quote of the Day: Wall Streeter Vows to ‘Take Your Cushy Jobs'”

Financial Times, April 30, 2010: “We are wall Street…we are smarter and more vicious than [dinosaurs]”

Wall Street Oasis, April 30 2010: “We eat what we kill”

…etc.

The fact that it was “an anonymous email supposedly making the rounds on Wall Street” a year and a half ago doesn’t make the rant any less amusing in 2011, but we should be careful before claiming — as some leading blogs have started doing over the last couple days — that it’s a Chicago trader’s response to the Occupy movement.

Somebody just printed out an old email and used it to embarrass the Occupy Chicago protesters. That’s all.