Ya Gotta Love It

Ever seen "The Sting"?  Newman and Redford did a marvelous job of portraying the artistry of a good con.  As good or better than any Broadway play, a con such as the one in "The Sting" had a cast of players that was expert in "improv"; improvisation.  Their stage was the "real world" (remember, this was a movie), and their sets were the streets and alleys, and the homes, offices, and bars in that real world.

And, of course, it was okay to cheer for "the bad guys" (Newman, Redford & Co) because wrongs were righted; the con achieved justice.

But this IS the real world, and what has happened,and continues to happen, is anything but just.

Turns out that the "settlement" between Goldfinger (the "too big to fail" banks) and it's subsidiaries (federal and state governments) - you know, the one that would "provide relief to struggling homeowners - won't do that at all.

I'm shocked.  Dismayed, even.  Who would've thought that Goldfinger would artificially pump up home values to pump up loan amounts to pump up mortgages (that Goldfinger knew would ultimately fail) only to "pool" those mortgages to sell "securities" (that were anything but secure) to cities, states, pension funds, and even individual investors, knowing that when the " hit the " the only people left holding the bag would be the homeowners on the one end, and the investors on the other?  Who could've believed that Goldfinger would then hide it's "left-pocket money", and get its agents (who ceased "representing" us a lo-o-o-ong time ago) to "bail them out" with "money" taken from the very people whose jobs were lost (if not "offshored"); whose homes were stolen; whose pensions evaporated?

How could anyone fathom that when they GOT CAUGHT forging signatures, falsifying documents, and suborning perjury, their "punishment" would be to pay a "settlement" equal to pennies on the dollar back to their victims?  A "settlement" worked out by (you guessed it, I hope) their agents in the federal and state governments!!!

But at least those ravaged by this beast would get something, right?  Wrong.

Goldfinger's agents (federal and state governments) now intend to use that "settlement" to balance thier own books.  Screw the victims.

http://www.propublica.org/special/where-are-the-foreclosure-deal-millions-going

This is traditionally known as a "bait and switch". But that doesn't do this con justice. This is far better than a "bait and switch". As described in a number of not very well known (and certainly not publicized in the Goldfinger-owned "press") cases, this is "the Kansas City Shuffle".

Quoting from just one of those cases, what Goldfinger has pulled off is:

"…a corporate "Kansas City Shuffle," a complex confidence game; in the 2006 film,

Lucky Number Slevin, Mr. Goodkat, (a hitman played by Bruce Willis), explains (in memorable quotes from Lucky Number Slevin, at www.imdb.com/title/tt425210/quotes),

'A Kansas City Shuffle is when everybody looks right, you go left ... It's not something people hear about. Falls on deaf ears mostly .., No small matter, Requires a lot of planning, Involves a lot of people, People connected by the slightest of events, Like whispers in the night, in that place that never forgets, even when those people do'"

 

And now, "their people" in the states will join in the rape.