Wall Street is the new Green Zone

One of Paulson's first picks for his crack bail-out team includes Reuben Jeffery III.  One of Jeffery's last gigs was with Paul Bremmer when he setup the infamous Green Zone in Baghdad.  Also known as the "Free Fraud" Zone, staffed

...with Young Republicans, investment bankers and Dick Cheney interns. Qualifications weren't a big issue back then, because the staff's main function was to hand over stacks of taxpayer money to private contractors, who were the ones actually running the occupation. It was this nonstop cash conveyor belt...

So, who was the first to line-up for the money this time?

...none other than the law firm of Bracewell & Giuliani — yes, that Giuliani. The firm's chairman, Patrick Oxford, could scarcely conceal his glee over the prospect of cashing in on the bailout. "This one," he told reporters, "is very, very big." At least four times bigger, in fact, than the post-9/11 homeland-security bubble, from which Giuliani and his various outfits have profited so extravagantly. Even bigger, potentially, than the price tag for the Iraq War itself.

More in "The New Trough" by Naomi Klein @ Rolling Stone