05-10-2008, 08:55 AM
Linda Minor Wrote:I well remember the bank heist of the mid-1980's. I watched the real estate flips all around me as the local speculators went crazy, and I made out OK just drafting deeds and wrap-around deeds of trust out of my little office. There was a lot of fraud fueled just by high interest rates, which kept "values" going ever higher. It was a gamble on when the price would begin to fall, and who would be left holding the asset on which more was owed than could be recouped by sale. A lot of those, like poor Neil Bush (his Momma said he never did anything wrong!), raked in cash for holding the door open for their friends who were doing insider deals with no intention of repaying.
I got out of that end of real estate in time to spend the next three years foreclosing on family farms--probably the most distasteful three years of my career. Then I went to Houston just in time to work with a group of attorneys investigating an incident of alleged political bribery during that time and was present at an interview of a couple of fraudsters who were mentioned in Pete Brewton's book. While they were laughing about the title, Mafia, CIA and George Bush, one of them asked the other which entity he worked for--the Mafia or the CIA? The other just shook his head, and replied that Brewton just did not understand how it all works. I wish I had known enough at the time to ask them to explain it to me, but I was too afraid to hear the answer.
That's interesting Linda. I wonder what they meant eh. I remember Brewton discussed in his book the Mafia technique of taking over a business, leveraging it with enormous loans, asset stripping it and then scarpering off with the loot leaving the banks with a shell for their collateral. They would usually focus on successful and thriving businesses because those always qualified for the highest loans.
In regard to my foregoing post, it is usual that any predictions I make turn out to be the very kiss of death of what I suggest, rather than being a barometer of accuracy, so FUBAR as Jan says, may well be happening.
However, I am certain that the ultimate bill to be paid will be a far bigger than the $700 billion...
But beware of my predictions is the moral of this post.
The shadow is a moral problem that challenges the whole ego-personality, for no one can become conscious of the shadow without considerable moral effort. To become conscious of it involves recognizing the dark aspects of the personality as present and real. This act is the essential condition for any kind of self-knowledge.
Carl Jung - Aion (1951). CW 9, Part II: P.14