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

Tuesday, February 24, 2015

Subprime Pump-and-Dump Frenzy Heats Up

Click here to access article by Wolf Richter from Wolf Street.

Richter has been following a new pump-and-dump strategy being perpetrated by an informal consortium of auto-lenders, private equity firms selling "securitized" auto loan packages, and rating agencies. Does this sound familiar to you? Well, capitalist scammers got away with it before, so why not again? To be fair, the players are facing some prosecution by government bodies, but according to Richter the scams continue to grow bigger.