European companies were no slouches at scrounging before the financial crisis, but since its onset the clattering of their begging bowls has become relentless.
Now it has begun to seep into the more hard-headed, vote-scrounging parts of the Republican Party, and become common chatter among political operatives from both parties.
Banks caught holding these structured securities on their books will have to reserve more capital against them, raising the prospect that they will have to go scrounging for capital once more.
The tricky part is that many of the banks participating in this round of negotiations have been badly stung by the same mortgage-related exposures that are plaguing Lehman, and many are scrounging to raise capital for themselves.
All in all I spent about 10 hours with the game, 12 if you count an extra few that had me rummaging around in the darkest corners of the map scrounging for loose change and attempting to find just one more Voxophone that would give me just another scrap of the plot to analyze.