I don't really understand why we're paying so much attention to Bernard Madoff.
Oh sure sure, if the charges are accurate, the collapse of his Ponzi scheme might just put him in the Fraud Hall of Fame.
But he'll have plenty of company. In the world of finance, however, it's probably more accurate to say he will achieve new heights in the realm of illegal fraud.
As we're discovering, almost the entire economy is the moral equivalent of a Ponzi scheme.
Hyperbole? Well, let's see:
While the operating details may be different... somewhat anyway...it's undeniable that much of our financial and industrial structure is a Pyramid based on a phantom foundation.
It has been constructed by opportunists who were such con artists they didn't care whether it ultimately imploded, as long as they got theirs.
Or so inept they had no business around the building.
Or worst, the people who adopted the "Get along-go along" approach to success...never going against the grain, no matter what.
Those may be the most corrupt of all, since their expedient "make no waves" mentality was at the very least amoral, which is another way of saying immoral.
By the way, that would include the politicians who looked the other way so they could either get the crumbs in the form of campaign contributions, or because raising a stink was simply too much of a hassle.
Now that the chickens have come home to roost the home has caved in.
There are important differences between Madoff and the others:
First of all, he has not had the chutzpah to ask for a multi billion dollar loan to bail him out. At least so far.
Secondly, a sizable chunk of those who have been harmed by his enterprise are the prosperous, or soon-to-be former prosperous.
The rest of the financial schemes have damaged or destroyed the well-being of nearly everyone..rich, poor and somewhere in between, including those who believe that Ponzi was a character on "Happy Days"
During these UNhappy days, as we clean up this mess, we need to go beyond oversight regulation. It is essential that we write into the law prohibitions that drag a lot of these shady dealings and their dealers across that narrow line that separates barely legal and illegal.
In other words we need to call all this larcenous conduct what it is: A crime.
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It's like a bank thief who posts bail from the bag of loot he stole.
Time for heat on a Judge too?
I am a Jew and play the market, the basic rule of the market is that money simply does not vanish in thin air, whenever someone loses some other person gains. In case of these frauds they are transferred to their own fake companies.
There are no babies out in the market, who do not know what is happening. I believe that the Regulators in Treasury, SEC and Federal Reserve are all partners in crime.
The beauty of all these heist is that these fraudsters deposit the loot mostly in European and Israeli Banks. The bankruptcies are declared and the babies in Regulatory Depts express their innocence.
Can we investigate this through a Grand Jury ?.
Its not big corporations and big banks that are to blame. Its not the wiz kids on wall street. They are only players. They didn't set the rules.
A Ponzi scheme is illegal because its a lie. It's fraud. Another regulation won't end it. Regulators would look at the same books that investors looked at. Fake books.
The topic we need to discuss is the role of the Federal Reserve. They are given the ability to create money. Its a private banking system. Your Congress, uses the Fed because you the people keep demanding stuff from our government. New wars, auto bailouts. National health care, more police and teachers. There is not enough money around to supply you with all of your demands so the Congress has the Fed. print money. It gives you that large return for your investment. Its not tax money you are getting. Its newly printed money. You are being taken.
Learn something..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Reserve_System#Criticisms
Pyramids There are lots of those around in my opinion. Walmart is a pyramid, Home Dept, Lowes.. All pyramids. Destroying the middle class of America.. If companies like these didn't exist the economic picture would never look like this...
Lack of oversight lack of oversight lack of oversight... Have you ever attempted to talk with anybody that sits in one of these glass towers?? Good luck. We the people.. Or them the robber barons.. History repeats itself. Oh And Blah Blah Blah... I'm in a bad mood and (My head hurts)
Why? Because money itself is a Ponzi scheme.
Money is a Ponzi scheme because money is created out of nothing as interest-bearing debt to the central banking system, which is the operator of the scheme. Every dollar is a promise to repay one dollar plus interest. Since the interest isn't loaned into the economy with the corresponding dollar, it cannot be repaid unless more interest-bearing money is borrowed. The scheme can only operate as long as the underlying economy sustains exponential growth in both consumption and debt. When it collapses, the perpetrators of the fraud come away with all the properties and assets in the economy.
Rubin is named in the lawsuit as well. Any guesses why we're not seeing that in print? We are facing a purposeful debasement of our currency to help reign in the New World Order that so many of our centrist globalists on the Hill are chomping at the bit to secure their place in the new era.
For instance, Goldman Sachs bundled contributions 3:1, Obama/McCain. House wins.
We need to look to our currency, not mechanistic elaborations of what will work or not work. It begins at the top: The Federal Reserve and world government.
But Mr. Franken, this is exactly why the Madoff situation needs to be in the limelight 24/7:
To expose these economic theories for what they are.
On another note, the Swiss banks involved must realize karma is b - - - -.
Some of that easy come money came from WWII.
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He contributed to democrats.
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Search opensecrets.org for the truth the liberal media doesn't want you to know.
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This guy makes Ken Lay look like a saint, but since he's a democrat and his ill gotten dollars went into the pockets of democrats the the media will look the other way. Watch and ask yourself why he isn't mentioned as much as Ken Lay, and why the liberal media doesn't mention his contributions to democrats.
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What a great country where democrats and their contributors/friends don't have to face the same scrutiny as republicans.
Wrong. Premise wrong. Conclusion wrong. Deliberate attempt to misinform. Just B.S.
Banks, Corporations, Advertisers and the politicians who side with them are Enemies of The People
How about this idea? A Pyramid scheme based on taking debt and turning it into securities that are then sliced into derivatives, inflated in value, and pumped into the perpetual motion machines of the World Float Market?
But how to sustain such a money making mechanism? Well first of all ... duh ... you have to get rid of all the regulations you can and compromise the regulatory agencies that remain, not a problem.
Then there is the issue of fresh money coming into the Pyramid at the bottom ... how to do that? Ah hah! Easy credit! Credit Cards for EVERYONE! That'll do it! Who cares if the card holders amass access to credit they could never pay in six lifetimes were they to use it all? it's the CDOs from their debt we want as octane for the Pyramid ... besides, draconian bankruptcy laws will keep them in line, as long as they don't all default at once, but that would require a Crash. No way!
cont ...
It is an AMAZING plan, Mr Franken ,,, and as long as the credit markets don't freeze causing the inflated securities' values to collapse (silly thought) we will be living high on the hog!
Are we good or what? Let's give it a shot!
Yes, there was and is a decent % of serial abusers, but we're only now finding out about the true serial abusers on Wall Street now, aren't we? I bet you think the average joe is at fault for de-regulation and the birth of the derivative market.... sad...
You are a sorry excuse for an American, if you are one. Tarred and feathered is where your ilk should end up...