MB Civic

Wanna know what the “Swoop and Squat”, “Dollar Store”, “Pig in the Poke”, “Rumanian Box”, “Big Mitt”, “The Wire” and “The Reload” are? See Taibbi’s latest in Rolling Stone …

The post-bailout era in which Goldman thrived has turned out to be a chaotic frenzy of high-stakes con-artistry, with taxpayers and clients bilked out of billions using a dizzying array of old-school hustles that, but for their ponderous complexity, would have fit well in slick grifter movies like The Sting and Matchstick Men. There’s even a term in con-man lingo for what some of the banks are doing right now, with all their cosmetic gestures of scaling back bonuses and giving to charities. In the grifter world, calming down a mark so he doesn’t call the cops is known as the “Cool Off.”

.. read more