America's Game...Three-card Monte
By Robert T. Smith
web posted March 11, 2013
Three-card Monte is a con game where the shill pretends to conspire with the mark to cheat the dealer, while in fact the shill is conspiring with the dealer to cheat the mark. In America's game of Three-card Monte, the citizen-taxpayer is the unfortunate mark. While many of the issues we face can be complex and inter-related, consider a few general examples to see how the con game is played in real-time.
Do you wonder how we fell into our current and ongoing economic difficulties...a con game of Three-card Monte. As the trigger for our economic mess, in general terms the federal government required lending/investment companies to make bad loans on housing. Not to worry though, the federal government dealer allowed the lending/investment company shills to securitize these loans; in essence, allowed the bad loans to be bundled and made into investment products. It is these bundles of bad loans that metastasized throughout our economic system and eventually brought about the crash of our economy – housing bubble - and dramatic effect on the marks in this con game, the citizen-taxpayers. To add insult to injury, the marks were then required by the dealer to make the shills whole, by bailing them out of their role in the con game.
Do you wonder why our everyday commodities have increased in cost...in part, a con game of Three-card Monte. As an economic principle, if more dollars are available to purchase a relatively finite amount of goods, prices go up, especially for everyday commodities that the consumer has to buy, such as gasoline, food, etc. The dealer in this con game of Three-card Monte is the Federal Reserve, who has gone on a U.S. dollar printing binge. The consequence of this con game is that the mark pays ever increasing diluted dollars for food and basic staples. Each dollar has decreased in its buying power, while the commodity value remains relatively the same, giving the appearance that the commodity costs more. The role of the federal government shill in this con game is to allow the Federal Reserve dealer to play the game and divert the marks attention to distractions over partisan political issues.
Do you wonder why interest rates are too low to provide a benefit to save your money.... that's right, a con game of Three-card Monte. As an economic principle, maintaining interest rates at historic low levels punishes savers. Once again, the dealer in this con game is the Federal Reserve, who forces the marks to put their money into circulation, to "stimulate" the economy. If the dealer allows the marks to save their money in the form of high interest bearing savings accounts, money markets, or the like, then this money is no longer in circulation. Holding the interest rates at historically low levels provides little incentive for the marks to save.
The role of the federal government shill in this game is again to allow the dealer to play the game and divert the marks attention to political distractions over partisan political issues. In addition, the federal government shill is the largest debtor in the history of the world. It benefits the shill to see interest rates remain low or the national debt would be even worse. If the marks would recognize an overtly increasing debt, the con game would be exposed and cause the shill to be limited in how much power they could wield and money they could "invest."
Have you wondered why the stock market appears to be doing so well, but the economy still suffers...yep, con game of Three-card Monte. As an economic principle caused by the insanity of Keynesian monetary manipulations, the stock market is not necessarily related to the health of the economy. According to the Federal Reserve Keynesian dealer, in this instance Ben Bernanke, money must be pumped into the investment system to create a "wealth illusion," so that the marks will see their investments increase in value and be encouraged to spend/invest more to stimulate the economy. The term of art for this con game is quantitative easing. In this case, an increasing stock market is not evidence of an increasing economic activity.
Stocks may rise due to the increased money that is being printed by the Federal Reserve out of thin air and invested, but companies are not increasingly productive; no actual wealth is being created to coincide with the increase in the stock values. This stock market increase is a bubble created by investors purchasing stock off of artificially high amounts of money printed by the Federal Reserve. The role of the shill in this game is to allow the dealer to play the game and divert the marks attention to political distractions over partisan political issues. Similarly as the Federal Reserve / federal government con game that created the housing bubble, the stock market bubble is destined to burst on the mark.
Who are the main players in today's con game of Three-card Monte...the dealer is played alternately by the Federal Reserve or the federal government, and the mark always remains the citizen-taxpayer. Unknown to most marks, the Federal Reserve is a bank that is not a part of our federal government, nor is it run exclusively by American citizens. However, the Federal Reserve has significant control of our country's monetary policy, perhaps even to a greater extent than the federal government.
The shill – aka the "plant" or "stooge," is enthusiastically played in many of the con games by our denizens of the beltway, the three "stooges" of political chaos, the House, Senate, and President. The shill's goal is to convince the mark that he/she/it is on their side, while in fact, tacitly or actively colluding with the dealer to con the mark.
Our country's game of Three-card Monte relies on "We the People" as the marks to remain uninformed and/or divided and at odds with one another....the dealer and shills are counting on it. 
Robert T. Smith is an environmental scientist who spends his days enjoying life and the pursuit of happiness with his family. He confesses to cling to his liberty, guns and religion, with antipathy toward the arrogant ruling elites throughout the country.