Last year, Democrats claimed that the new financial reform law they passed had finally shut down the Wall Street casinos – those flim-flam houses of high finance that had wrecked our economy in 2007. But the new Republican majority in the house say they intend to undo the reforms this year. Why? Because, sob the GOP leaders, the law passed by those Democratic meanies was too harsh on the millionaires who run Wall Street, so they plan to loosen the restraints on them.
But wait – what’s that sound? Why it’s the clickety-click-click of Wall Street’s roulette wheel, still spinning round and round. Despite the Democrats’ reform and even before the Republicans rush to give aid and comfort to the poor bankers, the games never really stopped.
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Check out Pimco, for example, a huge Wall Street player that’s been trying to lure hotshot investors into a new gambling scheme. It promises to buy bad mortgages from troubled banks and – hocus-pocus – turn them into a profitable windfall for Pimco and the elite gamblers who’re putting up at least half-a-million bucks each.
The fund, with the peppy name of “Bravo,” looks like the same kind of razzle-dazzle that wrecked us three years ago. But not to worry, for Pimco has enlisted an all-star line-up of officials from the old Bush regime to endorse the hustle, apparently thinking they give it some respectability.
There’s Josh Bolton, for example, a former Goldman Sachs honcho who was George W’s chief of staff. While in the White House, he helped loosen Wall Street regulations to allow banks to become casinos. After they imploded, he dutifully helped orchestrate a taxpayer bailout for them.
Now Josh is onboard with Pimco to keep the roulette wheel spinning – and no doubt he’ll get behind the GOP’s effort to re-open the whole Wall Street casino, not to mention the next bailout they’ll want.
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