The Wall Street Mob

From Busting Out The Joint, by Gonzalo Lira:

Around 1990, I saw “Goodfellas” when it first came out. Scorcese’s quasi-nostalgic take on the Italo-American gangster culture of the 1960’s and ’70’s was like a tricked out Cadillac convertible: Eye-catching and glittery, and very very memorable.

One of the scenes that struck me—and a film-school textbook example of how to stage a tracking shot—was the scene where the mobsters “bust out” a neighborhood restaurant. The camera dollied sideways as it first showed a long line of delivery men bringing in an obviously excessive amount of goods and supplies to the restaurant, then it showed how mobsters were taking those supplies out of the restaurant through the front door and loading them onto the back of a truck, all in one smooth motion.

This was called “busting out the joint”.

In mob parlance, as per Scorcese, “busting out” a restaurant or other business means buying supplies on credit, then stealing those supplies and leaving the business holding the bag. When the credit ceiling of the business is reached, the business is declared bankrupt and the creditors are stiffed. The mobsters, of course, walk away with all the supplies that were bought on credit and sell them off for a 100% profit. The beauty of the scam is that the business (and the business’ owners) are the ones stuck with the legal responsibility, while the creditors are stuck with the tab

...

By whatever means, executives found themselves in control of fairly successful businesses. They had the businesses gorge on credit, while simultaneously paying themselves exorbitant fees and “special dividends”, or else they had the businesses take on suicidal levels of exposure at commesurately huge profit, which they siphoned to themselves in the form of salaries and bonuses. And when inevitably there was a dip and the businesses found themselves unable to pay . . .

These businesses were "busted out" -—just like the mobsters in GoodFellas. ...

...

Based on evidence gathered in the NY Times and Bloomberg—neither of them exactly Conspiracy Theory Central—you could successfully prosecute Maurice Greenberg and Thomas H. Lee Partners and their cronies for what they did to AIG and Simmons respectively. And in all the other cases going on, where Wall Streeters have walked away with obscene pay packages while leaving broken businesses behind, there’s practically a plaintive wail of retribution begging to be assuaged.

Only thing is—nobody is prosecuting anybody.

Of course not. They're all of the same looting, pillaging, raping tribe. Hey, Boy Scout, whaddya expect from this crew? Git ouda heah.