How About A Madoff Victim Bailout?
Looking over the list of poor saps who were hoovered into the Madoff money vacuum, it occurred to me that we might have found an excellent beneficiary of at least some of Mr. Paulson's remaining bailout bonanza.
Why not make the straggling losers in the ponzi parade sign a statement attesting to their credulity, greed and overall foolishness, issue them each a nice, pointy dunce cap -- and then help them out with a piece of what they've lost? Sure, we can take off a significant percentage of their ill-taken losses as punishment for their sins. Then let's help them.
I spoke to my broker yesterday. She's in Southern Florida. It seems that a lot of the old people there who are living out their lives on their investments, assembled after a lifetime of work, are now selling their modest, two-bedroom condos and pawning their jewelry. They're broke. Imagine that. Eighty years old and without a dime to your name, all because you had to get in on the latest sure thing from the guy everybody trusted. It's not right.
Likewise, a bunch of very credible charities are sucking the hose, funds that helped indigent widows and holocaust survivors and people suffering from illness so dire that they will be gone long before Madoff will have to spend one night where he belongs. And why is the guy still walking around on Park Avenue, anyway? Don't they have jails for such people?
Anyhow, even after Mr. Bush dribbles a little rain on the parched Big Three, there's still going to be hundreds and hundreds of billions just sitting around collecting minimal interest. You've got a whole bunch of victims out there who are guilty of nothing more than believing in the risk/reward game. Didn't we all?
Please, Mr. Paulson! Have a heart! It's Christmas!
Loading comments…
Want to reply to a comment? Hint: Click "Reply" at the bottom of the comment; after being approved your comment will appear directly underneath the comment you replied to
Take all that Madoff has and give it back to his investors. Make him sell everything he has until he has paid back the people who trusted him. He didn't act alone so find out who else was involved and go after them. Take what they have and pay back those who trusted him. White collar crime, make them do time!
F ...NO. Thers millions of families that need hejp in the US.. They can go get food stamps, welfare or a job. Welcome to the real world.
one thing that's really healthy about the downturn and the bailout is it did away with the outmoded obsolete notion of giving money to the poor. nobody mentions that any more. what a relief! at least the poor won't be trying to compete to strip the treasury with billionaires and big industry. thank god the democrats got over that old sixties idea about helping the poor! the christians abandoned it years ago- it's about time. the poor only spend it on food housing health care and education. instead of that kind of waste, the rich will buy planes, try to build electric cars, buy extra homes, yachts, anpatronize luxury resorts- things we canrelate to, that can be televised.
now that the poor are out of the equation, quite a bit more treasury money will be free.
They can get their "bailout" by sueing Madoff! They were greedy enough to rush headlong into this Ponzi without asking themselves what exactly was madoff doing to be able to pay above average dividends. If the shoes didnt hit the fan they would have been looking at the rest of us snickkering at how foolish we were for not "investing" with Madoff. Now, they want us to give them back their money which Madoff fleeced.
They took the risk without exercising due diligence, tough luck suckers. Join the rest of us hard working, taxpaying, underpriviledged ordinary Americans.
Also, thank your Republican Heroes, Regan, Bush, Bush, and yes, Vlinton, for enabling the theives in human clothing to destroy our Economy.
How about calling any scheme to give me & Joe Six-Pack some kind of federal payment based on the tax we paid or because an Oija board said so similar to the payment we got last year another kind of bailout? The 111th Congress & BHO could go for the new package for a stimulus, a broad based stimulus, to the ailing economy. Bailout is getting to be a super sexy, buzz word. Do I get to call it a bailout if I pay Verizon for phone & internet service & pay it on time? Bailout has such a cachet.
How 'bout we "let 'em eat cake!"
They should give Madoff the same sentence they gave Michael Milken. What was that two years in Club Fed? He got to go home at night? Oh, wait, no Milken stole from the goys so that's no problem.
Just what we need: more bailouts for rich people who made bad investments. How about we use our money for something productive right here in the US, rather than rewarding rich people for fraud and/or stupidity? Because the investors in question are wealthy Jews? I can think of a few working class Americans and their pension funds that could use a bailout right now.
Bailout all voters who were not stupid enough to vote for Bush.
No doubt the fact that charities were hit hard along with wealthy seniors in South Florida is tragic. However the folks invested with Madoff are not the neediest of society.Le
How about they take a really short haircut at best? I read newspapers and the financial advice bloggers on site like this one. The filled with things like "Diversify" and "change your asset allocation to safer investments when you get older" If you've managed to save enough money to attract the interest of someone like Madoff you should have the skills to pick up a newspaper. 80 year olds shouldn't have their money in the stock market.
As for the charities.
Hear, hear. I have been waiting for someone to suggest that we bail-out this greedy group. They have been getting better than average returns for many years; they can afford these losses.
The SEC failed to do its job and even ignored complaints.
THe SEC should make the investors whole.
The SEC is guilty of mis and nonfeasence on a serial basis, over many, many years. The test is if a reasonable person would accept the Madoff performance given the time value of the total non-interference nor bonafide investigation into his business and its practices by the agency responsible for same, the SEC. The answer is that it was reasonable to accept the Madoff performance reports, further supported by the demand deposit accounts held at Chase Bank [now JP Morgan Chase] that debited one's account(s) when any withdrawals were requested, e.g., should not have Chase, a sophisticated and knowledgable fiduciary, have known of the Madoff fraud? If they had not known, then how can one expect a lesser investor to have known?
It is therefore fair and prudent, particularly due to the SEC's reckless disregard of bonafide complaints and its own auditing rules and regulations, that the U.S. Government should immediately make all Madoff investors 100% whole, with damages awarded, wherein the total amount paid to the investors by the U.S. Government would equate to the November 30, 2008 Madoff end of month value of the equity statements mailed & received by all investors. To do anything less condones and accepts the SEC's behavior, and sends a signal to the worldwide business and financial community that "your investments into our markets are not legislatively protected despite our claims, nor safe from criminal use, hypothication, or theft."
Then the players should have purchased "investment insurance". There is a risk to all investments. Read the fine print.
SJNY: Nice try. I like the way you build your case. However, in this instance the shortcomings of the SEC do not justify rewarding careless investors.
Fox-Reuters-Ap-Upi News Agency
Dec. 19, 2008
Bush bailout billions to be extended to all legal persons which are corporations.
The White House announced today that the Bush Bailout Billions will be extended
to all legal persons which are corporations. "Mere people will get squat", Bush said
at a press conference.
Uhm, well, let me think about it,-------
How 'bout the people who were stupid enough to trust this "person" with their money and not check up on what he's really doing with it-----------
How 'bout they suffer the consequences of their stupidity and trust and lose their money??
You must be logged in to comment. Log in or connect with
