http://www.salon.com...source=newsletter

Murican biznessmen, aside from being ethics-free far too frequently, simply -- have no Class. But bankers! have been the robotic-Scrooges we've always loved to hate;
they will watch a property disintegrate because the spreadsheet says: It's Mine now! It's Mine now! and You Can't Use It. Infantile.
Cut off nose -- spite face.

. . .

I spoke the other day with a female friend -- a single mom -- whose ex-husband has hidden assets from her to avoid paying his fair share in child support and alimony. She works three -- count 'em, three -- jobs in an attempt to keep a house that is home to her and her four children -- all of them college-aged, all of them not getting any financial assistance from their father for their educations.

She has tried to utilize the programs that are supposedly available to help her keep her home. But the system is far stronger than her. It has beaten her down.

Now, this is a tough woman who has successfully battled cancer. She's someone I admire because she has been doing all of the "right things" to provide for her family without outside assistance. She probably could have gone on welfare rather than work three jobs, but that's just not her nature.

And the improvements she's made on this house over the years -- it has an amazing garden and yard, the result of long hours of her tender loving care.

Of course, none of this matters to the bank. The answer is "no" to her request to refinance the house. It's a sure-fire bet that once they evict her -- as surely they will -- the value of that property will decrease.

I doubt that my friend will rent a bulldozer and knock the house down like Terry Hoskins did. But there are millions of Terry Hoskinses and people like my friend who have reached the end of their rope. They are our friends, our neighbors -- and sometimes us.

. . .

That old GW Bush Swagger, sans the cowboy boots; (what was that brand of shoe that OJ wore to the massacree?)

I believe that the noted earlier example was, Let them eat cake..
(Though it seems that Marie never really said it, like so much else we 'know'.)

Only question is -- how many similar examples of the systematic wealth transfer from the least-able to pay --> to the least-in-need of any MORE -- will produce that tipping-point? which we always see clearly when reading of previous mobs-in-streets. One would think that those whose spreadsheet-foo occupies all waking hours, would have a personal one with a [ cell ] labelled

[ Nothing-left-to-Lose ] with a flag set to go off when its contents increments to:
{ (n+1) = Sufficient Rage to Act ]

One would think.

In '29, it seems that a few bankers did indeed leap out of windows -- 'shame'? still existed then.
(though again, not nearly as many as the myth)

In '12? '13? -- may we wonder how many shall be assisted-out?
Might we wonder how many of Mr. McCain's 16? 17? mansions shall remain untorched, as matters escalate?
What I think is: Murica ... it isn't Too Big to Fail

But previously I hadn't thought I'd still be around to see the spectacle!