The pattern is clear. It's a simple model, but the predator finance capitalist model is devastatingly effective.

The pattern is clear. America's predator finance capitalists, who are clearly in control, run roughshod over the global economy with nothing stopping them.

Their model is simple: First, lever nations up with debt by using schemes that involve massive control fraud, then force them to the brink of bankruptcy and then offer to "save" them with "bailouts" via central banks or the IMF or World Bank, in exchange for brutal austerity. This destroys labor bargaining power and income, it also necessitates asset liquidations at fire sale prices.

That's when the predators swoop in to buy up these assets at pennies on the dollar and begin imposing fees for the use of the very same assets that once belonged to the people, which by the way, were paid for many times over as a result of taxes collected. In effect the new owners, the finance capitalists, impose a new tax for an asset that we the people once owned free and clear.

Now for the loans. Of course the loans are such that they can never be paid off because their terms are so onerous. This ensures that the austerity never stops because the threat of bankruptcy is always there. Only when the body of the victims have been sucked dry of every possible remaining asset do the predators discard the wretched carcass, but before they do, they take whatever is left of the pensions of the public workers. Then they look for a new victim and repeat, all the time aided by the law enforcement and military apparatus of the United States, which is unchallengeable.

I may have left some things out, like a corrupted academe (economics profession, certain universities i.e. Harvard, Stanford, U. of Chi.), which enables these frauds and thefts thanks to bogus research (Reinhart & Rogoff stuff), a cowardly and unsrupulous media that will do or say anything for ad dollars and a dumbed down citizenry.

But you get the picture.

David Ruccio — Is there something in the water at Harvard?

Summers, Mankiw, Ferguson and Rogoff?

And people really believe Harvard stands at the pinnacle of the intellectual meritocracy in the United States?

Occasional Links & Commentary
Is there something in the water at Harvard?
David Ruccio | Professor of Economics, University of Notre Dame

Yes, it is embarrassing.

Is It Legal To Play Fantasy Economics For Real Resources? :(

Commentary by Roger Erickson

It is if Robert Rubin MAKES it legal!

Whether YOU want it to be legal, or not.

Go back to your own fantasy, dude. The Middle Class fantasy belongs to Robert Rubin. He may even have trademarked and patented the class-ownership rights?

Yessir! Robert "Class Ruin" Rubin - he's our man! Hero to Benedict Arnolds, and Control Frauds everywhere. On the official Control Fraud Keating Scale, Rubin is the only one so far to be lauded Magna Cum Fraud.

You should see CR Rubin's "Beat the Rap" video. It's so hot it's classified!

Even if the Entity Fails, Executives Walk Away Rich. From Banks? Or From the Entire USA? How about WE Walk Away Instead, With OUR Nation Still Wealthy?

commentary by Roger Erickson

"Even if the entity fails, you walk away rich." That's the last line of Bill Black's famous recipe for Control Fraud, learned while prosecuting the guys who bought & owned the Keating-5. Bill was the featured guest during the third hour of the Coast to Coast AM banking fraud special on Saturday, August 25, 2012

Here's the whole recipe again, because we need to repeat this as many times as it takes for the US electorate to recognize how they're being robbed.

Black's recipe for robbing a bank is simple:

1) If you're a bank, grow like crazy by making really crappy loans

2) Make lots of really crappy loans at a premium interest rate.

3) Employing extreme leverage (a whole lot of debt compared to equity)

4) Set aside next to nothing for loss reserves for the inevitable deluge of losses that are going to be coming.

“If you do those 4 things you are mathematically guaranteed, in the near term, to report record profits. And with modern executive compensation, that means that the controlling officers will be made wealthy... Even if the entity fails, you walk away rich.”

Even paranormal researchers are now hearing Bill's message! So, that's progress. :)

ps: That definition certainly ought to define Geithner and most members of Congress. Maybe we're closer than we imagine?

Or are we further?

We once had the Keating-5 just in the US Senate. Now we have the Geither-535? Or is that number even bigger, and now distributed across gov agencies from the Fed to the DoJ? Not to mention the Presidency of Harvard U and U-Chicago, the preferred sites for either opposing or collaborating fraud camps.

Do today's Control Frauds care if even the entire USA fails? Will they still walk away personally wealthy? To where? And with what form of wealth guarantees?

How about WE walk away from them instead, with OUR nation still wealthy?

Bill Black, wherever you are, we need a simple slogan and plan to mobilize citizens in opposition to Control Frauds and Innocent Frauds alike.  Here's a suggested version.

George Washington's simple recipe for saving a nation from its banks:

1) If you're a citizen, grow your country like crazy by improving the quality and tempo of distributed decision-making!

2) Improve economic tempo by the simple act of de-centralizing decision-making, so we can explore more of our options, and select innovations, faster.

3) Eschew extreme leverage - and invest in generating many small failures, not too few large ones. Decentralize decision-making by distributing resources well enough to explore distributed options. Scalable success will emerge by default, as everything that doesn't work is quickly & cheaply exposed.

4) Don't bet the farm. Instead, invest in resilient systems capable of meeting all the unpredictable challenges, conceivable or inconceivable, that are inevitably coming. Continuously prioritize decentralized decisions by distributing feedback well enough to align all actions with net benefit.

“If WE do those 4 things WE are mathematically guaranteed, in the LONG term, to ACHIEVE record SUCCESS. And with modern AUTOMATIC STABILIZERS, that means that the NATIONS CITIZENS will ACHIEVE SUCCESS... Even if a few frauds fail, our nation will continue generating success.”