Congress – as now constituted – will not serve us. We have ample evidence that all GOP allegiance is to the rich, certainly not the people. Furthermore, too many Democrats tend to serve Wall Street, let’s say are not aggressive about our basic need of jobs, a fair share of national income, and freedom from corporate fraud.

The old fraud industry, Wall Street’s mortgage-backed securities market, in large part, forced more than 10 million people from their homes and reduced the average American’s net worth by 40% from 2007 to 2010. Contrarily, Wall Street suffered very little, even giving executives bonuses months after the crash. Merrily continuing their unbridled pilfering, the top 1% of Americans, from 2009 to 2012, captured 95% of income gains.

I’m sad to say that the goliaths are back, even bigger and more relentless in pillaging the public. Now the world’s fifth-largest private equity firm, the Blackstone Group, has partnered with the same looting banks that nearly tanked the global economy.  Among them, Deutsche Bank, JP Morgan Chase – fresh from its $13 billion fraud payment, Wells Fargo, and PNC Bank, all have the distinction of foreclosing on the most families in 2013.

The new casino game, in which Wall Street (the house) always wins, is rental-backed securities. Wall Street hedge funds and private equity firms have quietly amassed more than 200,000 cheap, mostly foreclosed houses in cities hardest hit by the economic meltdown, marshaled by the same people. Blackstone has bought just 40,000 of mostly foreclosed houses across the country, using eye-popping wads of cash, credit lines from bank supporters like Deutsche Bank which alone supplied $3.6 billion. They’re taking the business international, now beginning in foreclosure-ravaged Spain.

Ever wondered what happened to all those funds the Fed has made available? Most of us didn’t see them – mere investments don’t have the returns of unregulated Ponzi schemes.

It is clear that between 2005 and 2009, the mortgage fraud practices zeroed in on minorities, a group most vulnerable to the American dream of owning a home.  Such racially discriminatory lending practices destroyed 53% of African American wealth and 66% of Hispanic wealth. Some of these same victims are being set up for victimization again, renting homes once owned by multitudes of the foreclosed.

For Blackstone, along with other private equity companies like them, the old speculative cycle begins. They need more upfront money to purchase more cheap, foreclosed homes before prices rise. The answer: bundle rental payments for thousands of single-family houses and – working with monolithic banks, sell the bond to investors with mortgages on underlying houses offered as collateral.

These rental-backed securities are in their first tier, but there is no regulation to stop the same bundled securities from being sold again – a repeat of the last pre-recession fraud. Furthermore, cash flow prospects sent to investors assumes that 95% of these homes will be rented at all times, this with an average monthly rent of $1,312.

Mortgage-backed securities, apart from becoming highly-leveraged, did have defaulting homeowners to foreclose on, though even this claim was often botched by error-prone banks. Contrarily, a single home-rental bond could easily blow up, thousands of families being evicted, even though evicted families did not miss a single rent payment.

Consider a 95% rental rate and uncommitted property managers. Evidence indicates little commitment to maintenance, rent collection accuracy, timely problem-solving or a fair eviction process. In Atlanta, CaDonna Porter had cockroach problems and payment snafus by property management representatives. The payment problem was corrected but the cockroach problem still remained. In Charlotte, North Carolina, Invitation Homes, Blackstone’s management arm, filed eviction proceedings against a full 10% of its renters, according to the Charlotte Observer.

Meanwhile, in an economy where GDP is dependent on a 70% contribution from consumers, we are being consumption-starved with low wages, unemployment, and spending cuts at all levels of government. Exploitation on other fronts, such as rent-based securities, one based on rosy occupancy standards and sporting bad management, seems to be pushing the global default envelope once again.

Even the rich elite are getting cold feet about the American economy. For example, Warren Buffett has been quietly reducing his holdings of stocks that depend on consumer purchasing habits, selling 19 million shares of Johnson & Johnson and reducing overall stake in “consumer product stocks” by 21%. Fellow billionaire, John Paulson, who made billions betting on the subprime mortgage meltdown, is clearing out of U.S. stocks too, dumping JPMorgan Chase and discount retailer Family Dollar and consumer-goods maker, Sara Lee. And billionaire George Soros sold all of his bank stocks, including JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, and Goldman Sachs – all three consisted of more than a million shares.

What do they know that we don’t know? Is casino capitalism about to bring another recession?