Veterans of ’90s Bailout Hope for Profit in New One

WASHINGTON — A tight-knit group of former senior government officials who were central players in the savings and loan bailout of the 1990s are seeking to capitalize on the latest economic meltdown, enjoying a surge in new business in their work now as private lawyers, investors and lobbyists.

With $700 billion in bailout money up for grabs, and billions of dollars worth of bad debt or failed bank assets most likely headed for sale or auction, these former officials are helping their clients get a piece of the bailout money or the chance to buy, at fire-sale prices, some of the bank assets taken over by the federal government.

“It is a good time to be me,” said John L. Douglas, a partner in Atlanta at the law firm Paul Hastings and a former lawyer for bank regulators who helped create the agency that administered the last federal bailout, the Resolution Trust Corporation…

Emphasis added.

I can hear them cackling and smacking their lips. If you listen closely you can hear the flesh being stripped from the bones. Each choice piece greedily devoured with out tasting. Just the sheer joy of stuffing your face with the grain fed meat that someone else raised.

This is America. Knocked down in a hit and run. The drivers last seen racing from the scene only to circle the block, returning to lift the wallet, before racing off in a bass powered heartbeat. The police officer sitting in his car never turns his head. The envelope filled with cash slipped behind his vest.

America. A country where night will be illuminated by partially working neon signs and cars with one functioning headlight. God Damn! It is good to be me!