b@105: Deals that have been presented as pure brokerage turn out to be an unprincipled hedge fund assault upon client capital….Government Sachs is RICO writ large. [emphasis added]

Succinct. And very well said.

Blankfein is getting good press – all things considered. So I wonder about carefully appointed cover.

Although I also take wretchard’s point:

w@13: I think that the powers that be are focusing on financial solutions because they don’t want to focus on the hard choices which they cannot escape, although they will certainly try.

Denial on both sides (who me? drinking in this bar?)

It has been interesting (of a piece) to watch the up-and-down of 2008 causation – government policy and CRA versus financial services and synthetic derivatives.

The tangled web of “hypercorporatism” provides ample cover for both antagonists in this post-modern morality play. The Tea Party movement has this tension at it’s core. So far it has not been fully articulated except in the sense of “anti-incumbency” and Noonan’s “The Big Alienation,” which some here viscerally reject in favor of a more partisan explication.

The big story – yet to be played – is whether the Middle Class can “deconstruct” crony capitalism. It’s a two-sided coin of the realm.

I think we can but it won’t be pretty – or for the faint of heart.