Wall St demo gets little traction despite Dow drop

By Deepa Seetharaman

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Many Americans may be deeply upset over the financial crisis, worrying about their personal losses and the cost of government bailouts, but they appear a long way away from taking to the streets in anger.

Organizers of a protest on Wall Street under the slogan "Bail Out the People, not the Banks" could muster only about 80 demonstrators near the New York Stock Exchange on Friday -- a day when U.S. stock prices dived to 5-1/2-year lows.

Attendance at the protest, organized by a coalition of nonprofit groups, was markedly below that of a Sept. 25 protest organized by labor unions that drew several hundred people. The Dow Jones industrial average was about 24 percent higher then.

People gawking at the rally, held on the steps of Federal Hall, outnumbered participants.

Speakers railed against banks and brokers, and called on Washington to aid homeowners facing foreclosures rather than bailing out Wall Street.

Some said the financial crisis was a human rights issue, while others declared it evidence capitalism no longer worked.

Pointing to signs highlighting Wall Street foibles, Joshua Gasteratos, 27, had another perspective.

"They know nothing," said the account executive for GunnAllen Financial, a small brokerage and investment bank. "You foreclose Wall Street, you might as well foreclose New York."