Bloomberg.com: Worldwide — The public in general will see this as another Wall Street fiasco, but the street sees it differently. This guy was a god and apparently the father of “modern Wall Street.” Perhaps that’s the problem with Modern Wall Street.
Let’s just say that finding out that this guy was crooked would be like finding out that Mother Teresa was a hooker. It’s that bad.
Bernard Madoff confessed to employees this week that his investment advisory business was “a giant Ponzi scheme” that cost clients $50 billion before two FBI agents showed up yesterday morning at his Manhattan apartment.
“We’re here to find out if there’s an innocent explanation,” Agent Theodore Cacioppi told Madoff, who founded Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC and was once chairman of the Nasdaq Stock Market.
“There is no innocent explanation,” Madoff, 70, told the agents, saying he traded and lost money for institutional clients. He said he “paid investors with money that wasn’t there” and expected to go to jail. With that, agents arrested Madoff, according to an FBI complaint.
Advice: Suicide Watch.
More bad news…after hours she was known as Hot Mama Teresa…
I suspect this is not going to be an isolated case. That if the SEC was actually doing its job, over the last 20 years, there would have been a number of such firms biting the dust. But it all seems to come out now. As a result of the Fed’s long standing practice of keeping the Interest rates low, so people will invest rather than save their money. So with practically everyone dabbling in the market these past few years. What a surprise, these “Ponzi” schemes began to crumble under the load. And none of these practices of Madoff were ever scrutinized by the SEC until now? And only because he basically confessed to the authorities?! Well, I’m so happy the SEC is up to speed, now. Let’s see. First Martha Stewart, and now Madoff. Wow, they’re really racking them in huh? Pitiful! The SEC would make lousy cops.
Aren’t “Wall Street” and “scam” a tautology?
So.. is he another Ayn Rand worshiper?
5,
“Mother Teresa had a very dark side.”
With a name like pedro, do you think you should comment on others complexions?
40 years? Impossible. Under the Clinton Admin there was no Corp corruption.
7
Why are you so partisan? Just cause Obama H Christ is a Democrat doesn’t mean you have to get all pissy…
For 40 years…. THink about it….. This guy is a fucking genius! ….. This who we need running this country. This bastard is smart enough to get away with this shit for 40 years he’s got my vote.
#7, ROTFLMAO
Would anyone please explain to me how this is any different from the way that our federal government is run?
Heck, the whole Iraq war has been ‘paid for’ using the same kind of accounting.
#11 – Prometheus
>>Would anyone please explain to me how this
>>is any different from the way that our
>>federal government is run?
They just fritter our money away slowly, a couple of billion at a time.
Madoff, on the other hand, madoff (heh) with a select few individuals’ money all at once.
Those poor bastards at the Palm Beach Country Club are grinding their teeth right now, wishing they had been nicer to the bums begging for money on the street. It’s going to be dangerous for them in the homeless shelter now.
Unless, of course, we fucking bail them out too. If they’ve got enough money that they can lose $50,000,000,000.00 in one fell swoop, they’re probably too big to fail, and need to have their losses underwritten by the government.
It’s only the people making $40,000/yr who get mashed into hot-dog purée by the meat grinder of Dumbya’s economy.
Will this guy REALLY go to a REAL jail? Will Bubba be his cellmate? I doubt it. Come to think of it, will OJ have to bend over like anyone else?
a few comments in other posts sent me off into the blackhole of time looking for answers/facts..
-anyway..after curious appointments the december’s executive orders list..i ended up at “The United States Attorney’s Office Northern District of Georgia”
in the news section of the DA’s site.. is listed
3yrs worth of prominent pdf format. -they are all 1-2 page quick reads with the just the “meat” of the charges.
if you scroll thru the list, you will find ALOT of multimillion (and billion) mortage fraud schemes/cases (amongst all sorts of others frauds) -and these are *just cases in northern alabama.*
apparently…we are only seeing the tip of huge mortage iceberg. -alot of these cases were started in 2000/2001 -anyway…gicew’em a quick lookover.
-if anything, there is alot if material for (dark) humour..
DA’s website, news area:
http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/gan/press/index.html
-s
How in the heck is this not on the front page of CNN?
# 15 RMR said, “How in the heck is this not on the front page of CNN?”
Because it lacks that “class warfare” angle.
Well, it may not be on CNN, but it is on the front page of the Wall Street Journal, which is kind of appropriate, don’t you think?
Of course, the Ponzi Pyramid is excatly the way our financial markets have been managed since the Jekyll Island Conference in 1910 (see http://www.frugalfun.com/jekylisland.html).
Of course, mathematically, none of these schemes can last forever, and it is remarkable that the Federal Reserve has been able to exist for so long. The 40 year cycle of the Madoff Investment scam isn’t necessarily all that impressive by its length, only by its size. The $50 billion lost in this scam is more than twice as much as the Bailout Bill for the Automotive industry that failed to pass last night, and dwarfs the amount lost by WorldCom in the largest bankruptcy in U.S. history.
Since the Social Security System is built upon the same kind of Ponzi Pyramid finance structure, how comfortable do you feel now about that part of your retirement plan?
# 18 Terry said, “Of course, mathematically, none of these schemes can last forever, and it is remarkable that the Federal Reserve has been able to exist for so long.”
It is the size & scope that, for the most part, determines the longevity of the scheme. There are fools that visit this blog that actually think the meltdown has something to do with who is President.
#19 – Paddy-RAMBO
>>There are fools that visit this blog that
>>actually think the meltdown has something to
>>do with who is President.
Hot dang! That Bush is one unlucky son of a bitc. He’s always in the wrong place at the wrong time, when somebody else fucks up something he’s involved in. He was there when they fucked up his military “service”, he was there when they fucked up his driving record, he was there when they fucked up Arbusto Energy (and they then went on to fuck up “Bush Exploration” and Spectrum 7 Energy, and finally Harken Energy), he was there when they fucked up the Texas Rangers, he was there when they fucked up Iraq, and now he’s there when they fucked up the economy.
Gosh. If I didn’t know better, I’d say that boy was born under a bad sign. Good thing somebody else was always to blame.
# 20 Mister Mustard said, “Hot dang! That Bush is one unlucky son of a bitc.”
Not Bush. Just wait.
OMG 3rd weakest story ever
cops show up and say ““We’re here to find out if there’s an innocent explanation,” Agent Theodore Cacioppi told Madoff”
and he confesses…nothing like selling umbrellas when it is raining
#21 – Paddy-RAMBO
>>Not Bush. Just wait.
Oooohh nooooo! Are you saying that our president-elect is one of those liberal bodies that you’ll be piling up??
Wow. A latter-day Sirhan Sirhan. Yikes!
Hey,
I lost my last good paying full time job within a year of 9/11. The “recovery” came (along with war) the news full of “economic recovery” but the jobless or in my case low paying part-time jobs. It was a “consumer driven” recovery and financed on cheap credit. Then the speculators drove commodities to crazy levels. Now bust!
I can recomend:
1. rural location.
2. grow a garden & learn home canning.
3. raise grass fed beef.
4. wood heat.
5. learn to fix things.
6. keep interested in current events.
[Duplicate comment deleted. Please don’t double post! – ed.]
The rich in America are your “royalty.” I heard an Irish comic say that and he followed with: In America you see a rich guy and you say “gee, I wish I were like him.” Here we say: “Lets get him!”
Martha Stewart cheats to get a bit more. Same with that software to football team owner guy last week. Millions aren’t enough.
Corruption is hard to avoid. Whether your temptation is money, power, or piety too many if not most in those environments cannot resist the power of the ring.
What I really don’t get is why the people who “get off” on busting these creeps have so little influence and impact. Course, Bush politicizing the office of Att’s Gen didn’t help.===and to Paddyo==yes there is stupid, lazy, and corrupt aspects to all politicians but Bush/Rove/Cheney have taken it to a new low. Eight years of “you gotta believe” will be hard to repair.
#24–pumpkin==thats great but your fantasy survival mode doesn’t address the problem. The problem at a real level is partisan politics running our government rather than “good government in the interest of America.”
You can turn to gardening, PaddyO can turn to blaming democrats, but the solution is in voting all incumbents out of office until “our leaders” get the message and get to work.
So Wall St is rotten to the core? Is that the message?
um, no
um, yes
#26
You misunderstand me, bobbo. It’s not fantasy – it’s survival and quality of life. When gas got so expensive some people worked a second job to buy gas to commute to the first job I said enough. I agree politics need changing and that we don’t need more laws – just enforce the ones we’ve got. I don’t have a lot of cash money, but do consider myself lucky to have a roof over my head and 3 squares a day. My wife has her day job that brings in the cash we need, and the farm and myself makes up the difference. It’s a good life, not led at a quick pace, but rather more in tune with the land, the seasons and the weather. For the record, I was a small contributor to Obama/Biden and put up a sign too. Would like to see USA mfg. come back, though.
I love the part where he said he was paying off investors with money that was not there. For a minute there, I thought he was talking about our federal government and the auto industry.
Good to see the SEC on the job.
I completely get your point pumpkin. We have to learn how to survive again, provide for our needs by ourselves and get off the mighty tit. It’s not about cutting yourself off society and ignoring the problems with our system. It’s about becoming humans again, first and foremost.