Wall Street Swindles

Here is a nicely told story of how Wall Street financiers (JP Morgan) fleeced the rubes, school boards in rural Pennsylvania, using new-fangled derivatives and old-fashioned subterfuge and trickery:

Swap deals in Pennsylvania work out well for banks, advisers and lawyers who are paid for putting them together. Schools, parents and students see it differently.

In Erie, Rosena Wright says she's growing angry as her son, Desmond, 13, has been transferred from Roosevelt Middle School, which the city shut down in 2007 after the heating failed, the roof leaked and a ceiling tile fell on a student's head. Desmond is now in a temporary space the school district is leasing from a church. Wright, 44, a day-care worker, says no one told her about the deal that cost her schools $2 million.

``I'm beyond angry,'' she says. ``I really want to tar and feather somebody.''

Erie schools superintendent Barker says he had thought the 2003 derivatives deal would save some money for the district.