Capitalists Gone Wild

by Oly Mike

The NY Times carried two stories of capitalism run amok today. The first story ran down the practice at the big mortgage/foreclosure companies of hiring “Burger King” kids to process their foreclosure paperwork. The resulting paperwork contains lots of meaningless affidavits in support of foreclosures, a lot of instances of perjury as agents swore to “facts” they had no reasonable knowledge of, and a whiff of fraud from the boardroom that will be exceedingly difficult to prosecute. Meanwhile...

The NYT also ran a story about a “crime ring” that created fake medical clinics and identity-theft “patients” to bilk Medicare out of $35 million dollars. Dozens of people have been charged, but the truth is these “criminals” are pikers compared to the foreclosure criminal ring, but the news framing reflects ruling class sensibilities regarding what is criminal and what is simply savvy business practice.

Can you TARP funds? I knew you could.

Slatest covered these stories, but declined to connect the dots.