to the people who placed the risky bets that caused the crash in the first place. He even helped “stabilize” the predatory debt sharks who had hedged against their own risky bets because they saw the crash coming.

On the other hand, “average” Americans went begging while the government’s massive bailout sustained AIG, Bank of America and, it seemed, nearly every other bank, fund and investment house under the sun. That’s because the biggest debtors were, according to the biggest debtors, simply too big to sink. This dichotomy left “average” debtors gasping for air as liquidity was siphoned off for the well-connected sharks swimming in their own well-protected tank. Because their unpayable promises were the foundation of the entire financialized system, they – and they alone – got Unclethe decades-long financialization of the economy was already complete. And the government’s acquiescence was a fait accompli.

But the perfect storm of wealth removal generated by the housing bubble and subprime economy wasn’t just the result of 30 years of financial deregulation. It was also because, as the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) detailed in its report on financialization, the broadly based economy of “things” had been relentlessly replaced by the narrowly beneficial economy of credit (also known as debt). In that economy, deal-making increasingly reinforces the wealth of deal makers at the expense of GDP and at the expense of income-challenged debtors. Those debtors, in turn, are ever more reliant upon credit (also known as debt) to bridge the gap between income and the “middle-class” lifestyle.

In