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The Bag Lady Papers (Alexandra Penney lost her life savings in the Madoff debacle.)
The Daily Beast ^ | 12/20/08 | Alexandra Penney

Posted on 12/20/2008 5:32:39 PM PST by Smokeyblue

Edited on 12/20/2008 7:20:13 PM PST by Admin Moderator. [history]

Alexandra Penney

(Excerpt) Read more at thedailybeast.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Society
KEYWORDS: crime; fraud; madoff; penney
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To: Jack Black

Sorry about that. It somehow escaped me to edit her cursing.


21 posted on 12/20/2008 7:34:40 PM PST by Smokeyblue
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To: Smokeyblue

Wait ‘til she finds out that the nearest Wal-Mart is in Secaucus.


22 posted on 12/20/2008 7:39:05 PM PST by Peelod (God bless America)
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To: Smokeyblue

Anyone else having a hard time summoning sympathy for Bernie’s victims? I sure am. He didn’t even provide investors with legit docs about their investments—they were happy as long as the reports reported an increase, and failed to notice the absence of required legal disclosures on the pages...there is something fishy about all of this, though.


23 posted on 12/20/2008 7:54:17 PM PST by browniexyz
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To: Smokeyblue
Not hearing the click of the key to "AP Studio" room 803 makes my thoughts turn to those sweet almondy cyanide capsules.

One of the consequences of the decline of the Christian religion in the West is that people tend to be unnaturally attached to possessions. Obviously Christians can suffer this affliction, and many do; they are just not being very good Christians when they do so. My point is that modern secular society compels us to be attached to possessions, whether in affluence or in deprivation.

It's one of many reasons why atheism doesn't work as a philosophy.

24 posted on 12/20/2008 8:03:20 PM PST by denydenydeny ("Banish Merry Christmas. Get ready for Mad Max.."-Daniel Henninger)
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To: Smokeyblue

25 posted on 12/20/2008 8:19:43 PM PST by Donald Rumsfeld Fan (Sarah Palin "The Iron Lady from the North")
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To: Donald Rumsfeld Fan

She gave Obama $1,170. That buys a lot of pasta.


26 posted on 12/20/2008 8:32:44 PM PST by RandyGH (Democrats--So far left they've left America)
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To: bpjam

This reminds me of the article about how all the wealthy young women in CA, were having to lay off their full time nannies, who made it possible for them to go to their gym, get pedicures, and facial treatments without worrying about the kids. Those nannies (mostly illegals) make 18-20 dollars an hour. Must be nice.


27 posted on 12/20/2008 8:40:47 PM PST by Eva (CHANGE- the post modern euphemism for Marxist revolution.)
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To: Smokeyblue

I feel great compassion for her. She didn’t do anything anybody else who rather suddenly comes into money might do (for instance, if I won the lottery or wrote a best-selling novel I would not presume to play the stock market; I’d probably hand the money over to Ric Edelman to invest the way Penney handed hers over to Bernard Madoff). She got regular, formal statements showing that the money was being well managed. Diversify, you say? Madoff’s statements showed that the money was being properly diversified, and anyway, who among us would argue with someone as brilliant as Madoff? Very few would have the insolence to do that.

So now she’s in her mid-sixties and is penniless. I greatly the guts she showed in taking humble jobs in the past—at the fishmarket, for instance; that’s a disgusting job. Right now she’s going through a perfectly normal period of mourning the impending loss of things and a life she has worked hard to acquire.

Stop sneering.


28 posted on 12/20/2008 9:16:41 PM PST by ottbmare
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To: kennedy
Maybe Yolanda can teach her how to work for a living.

Did you read the article? Alexandra Penney inherited nothing, and started working at humble jobs from her teen years on. This is no spoiled socialite.

29 posted on 12/20/2008 9:19:18 PM PST by ottbmare
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To: ottbmare
It's particularly disgusting to read about someone who genuinely has a lot of guts and knows how to work hard but is so utterly shallow that her complaints make me want to vomit on her shoes.

She made a lot of money and apparently forgot how to be a real human being. Losing the money might be the best thing that's ever happened for her soul.

30 posted on 12/20/2008 10:50:52 PM PST by Dianna
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To: Dianna

What is so shallow about her complaints? That she has to suddenly face being poor in her late sixties, despite a lifetime of work and saving? That she has to fire an employee she has trusted for years? That she is going to lose her home and all the beautiful possessions for which she has worked? That she is disappointed she can’t work as an artist, as she’d hoped, but may have to go back to working in a fishmarket?

If all that happened to me I would be very upset indeed. And I might whine. And if I could figure out a way to get someone to publish an article containing my whining so that I could make a couple of bucks, as Penney has cleverly done, I’d definitely publish it.

(As a matter of fact, all these unpleasant things might very well happen to me in the next year so I might be more sympathetic than other people on this forum.)


31 posted on 12/20/2008 11:13:10 PM PST by ottbmare
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To: ottbmare

I heard the statements and 1099’s Madoff sent to his clients were Hand written. How is that “formal”? Should have set off some bells.


32 posted on 12/21/2008 12:25:21 AM PST by sharkhawk (Here come the Hawks)
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To: Smokeyblue

She sounds pathetic.


33 posted on 12/21/2008 1:20:12 AM PST by kcvl
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To: Lancey Howard

Her ‘consort’, Dennis:

A consort is a spouse or companion, often of royalty or a deity, sometimes slightly inferior in function/status.


34 posted on 12/21/2008 1:21:40 AM PST by kcvl
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To: ottbmare

Maybe the ‘super secret’ way to invest her money should have been a clue to run the other way.


35 posted on 12/21/2008 1:26:37 AM PST by kcvl
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To: ottbmare

No, I would publish it for the world to read. I also wouldn’t publish sex books (her parents didn’t speak to her for nine years because of it) either.


36 posted on 12/21/2008 1:29:17 AM PST by kcvl
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To: ottbmare
What is so shallow about her complaints?

That she might have to sell her cottage, gone are the days of traveling to exotic locations, may not be able to continue to buy beautiful things and give them as gifts?

She's talking about a second home, places most people have never been and will never be able to see, and beautiful things that most people could never have afforded.

She's less concerned about Yolanda than about having to iron her own clothes (the horror!!). She's contemplated killing herself because she may no longer be able to live a life that most people never get close to.

Had she written straightforwardly about having to find a new career at her age, or the disappointment of working so hard for something and then losing it, then perhaps I could respect her. This, "woe is me, I can't eat caviar for breakfast anymore," crap is nauseating when a lot of people are losing their primary homes and having a hard time putting food on the table for their kids.

If you were dying of cancer, you wouldn't appreciate me complaining about a broken arm.

37 posted on 12/21/2008 1:37:12 AM PST by Dianna
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To: kcvl

Yeah, from the language I kind of surmised that Dennis is a dude who gets sent to the store for salads and fixes the doorknob when he’s done with the dishes.


38 posted on 12/21/2008 1:38:02 AM PST by Lancey Howard
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To: Smokeyblue
Good read; think Alexandra will be OK; this is probably just a 'first chapter' of her next book.

More critically, Democrats, Liberalism and Socialism; continue to be the 'undoing' of the world.

39 posted on 12/21/2008 1:57:21 AM PST by cricket (America's Freedom Rings! Thank You ~ U..S.A. Military~/)
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Comment #40 Removed by Moderator


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