Surviving Capitalism (Not) : The Monster: How a Gang of Predatory Lenders and Bankers Fleeced America, and Launched a Global Crisis

We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Friday, October 22, 2010

The Monster: How a Gang of Predatory Lenders and Bankers Fleeced America, and Launched a Global Crisis

by Michael Hudson from AlterNet.

This is an excerpt of Hudson's recently published book by the same title. It gives the details on how this giant scam worked to enrich a few while bringing down the world's economy.

A few weeks after he started working at Ameriquest Mortgage, Mark Glover looked up from his cubicle and saw a coworker do something odd. The guy stood at his desk on the twenty-third floor of downtown Los Angeles's Union Bank Building. He placed two sheets of paper against the window. Then he used the light streaming through the window to trace something from one piece of paper to another. Somebody's signature.

Glover was new to the mortgage business. He was twenty-nine and hadn't held a steady job in years. But he wasn't stupid. ...Watching his coworker, Glover's first thought was: How can I get away with that?