abstract:Three-card Monte (also known as Find the Lady or the Three-card Trick) is a confidence game in which the victim, or mark, is tricked into betting a sum of money, on the assumption that they can find the money card among three face-down playing cards. It is the same as the shell game except that cards are used instead of "shells".
As the Fiscal Cliff debate diffuses into so many Three-Card Monte games during 2013, perhaps the clarity of the Government Affordability Index can prevent us from being tricked, over and over and over again.