Posted on 12/16/2008 4:58:45 AM PST by SJackson
That’s true, more important the compromise in safety.
Might also note that there are levels of corruption that falls short of criminality, which should also be condemned.
So, tough crap for them. "HA-ha." (/Nelson Muntz)
Furthermore, it was hardly a shock to many that Madoff is a 'Rat, because sleaze of a feather flocks together, and the Democrats are by far the more morally bankrupt party.
I wonder if some of these victims will be able to connect the dots and see that their investments were stolen not only by Madoff, but in effect by corrupt, predominantly DEMOCRATIC politicians. Can they bring themselves to abandon their affinity for the politicians who helped to stab them in the back?
Thanks for the support. I am amazed taht some people want no ill to befall those who seek to destroy our country.
Let them feel the love.
Again thanks,.
He was audited in 2005 and 2007 by the SEC, 3 minor violations in 2005, no SEC action. They missed it. Though there's no indication, if Democrat congresscritters were to blame, they get to share it with the SEC. Under the Bush administration. Incompetent regulation is a problem for both parties.
There’s a list of victims in post 35 which I presume you haven’t read. Please let which ones deserve to be victims for fraud or physical violence.
Ping!
Please see my posts #s 37 and 44.
The fact that Lautenberg is apparently the biggest loser in all this doesn’t hurt my feelings.
What did Upchuck know and when did he know it!
He has other issues. Madoff is merely his excuse.
This is not quite a "Bush" SEC. Like many federal commissions, there are five members on it. By statute, no more than three can be of any party. Thus, it has to end up as 3 Republicans and 2 Democrats at present. You can bet your boots that Democratic senators had and have major influence over the Dems who were appointed and now sit on the commission. I don't think that Madoff and his organization would have randomly distributed his political contributions and not gotten some bang for his buck.
Madoff— Bail for him would be out of the question if I were judge. Too much of a flight risk due to him being such a schemer
Plus in jail you have him on suicide watch
This is the executive branch, he runs it. Good grief, he had a Republican House for six of them, Senate either GOP or a one vote margin for six. He's done a lousy job on many domestic issues, regulation of the financial markets is one of them. The fact that dems may have participated in some of the fiascos, like housing, I see no indication at all that any dems were involved here, doesn't release the President from the responsibility of running the government. This is a minor issue, a couple billion, but is typical of slovenly financial regulation.
They deserve to fail because they were just...really stupid.
Part of the problem is a little related to the socialism. Lots of smart (but not wise) people think that they can beat the market. The market has to be broken in some way for this to work and they believe the market is truly broken (since they are liberal).
So instead of accepting the market return, they turn to that special guy who knows what makes the market tick. They don’t understand that if they are beating the market for some length of time it is either unsustainable or a result of fraud.
First of all, when one attains a large amount of excess wealth, the rule of thumb is to protect it not press your bets. It’s sad if people lost everything but if you had $150 million net worth - pay off your house(s) and keep it in T-bills. Maybe you put $20 or $30 million to work more aggressively but by and large you are supposed to keep it safe and sound.
Now there are stories cropping up about people who knew this guy was a fraud for 30 years... hard to believe one could keep up such a charade for so long. So I’m curious to learn some details - as many as possible.
My guess, however, is that this will get settled rather quickly, with as few details as possible getting out. Because I believe that whatever he did was being done by all the market makers. Sure, he did have a scam going whereby he settled his own trades but so does UBS and so did Merril Lynch. What kind of ‘Ponzi Scheme’ did he run, how did he run it? Did he truly just pay off old money with new money, or did he have some other rigged market scams that just collapsed under the larger crisis? Why didn’t he get caught in the crises of 2000-2001, or 1986?
I agree but don’t hold your breath. If the politicians benefit from it then they will protect it.
Most Americans don’t truly understand basic economics let alone finance and how markets work. If they did they might rise up and demand more accountability, more transparency, and more prisons.
People knew he was a fraud for decades? Anythings possible, but look at the list of victims in post 35. Some pretty well respected investment firms missed it, along with the regulators.
As I understand it, this was just your run of the mill Ponzi, pay the old investors with the new money. And the returns he claimed, 10-12% a year, weren't suspiciously unrealizeable historically a few months ago. Ironically he seems to have sold consistancy and safty, not high returns. Smart, that's where the real money is.
So much more to learn. How did he survive previous downturns? Maybe not hit with redemptions. And what's about that unrelated market maker run by his sons? No relationship, I'm skeptical.
BTW, I think this was simply a crime, not a “strategy” used by other firms. IMO the significance of his position as a broker/dealer, how the h*ll did the SEC miss it, they examined him twice in the last three years. Aren’t they looking at assets or trades?
Madoff didn't just hit liberals or liberal institutions. This SOB hit hospitals too. I know that there are conservatives who were fooled by Madoff. I also saw that RAMAZ and its associated Synagogue, Keihilat Jeshrun, were hit. This is arguable among the most conservative private schools in the city. I went there for 3 years and know some graduates. Of 20 graduates 4 are liberal, 6 are unpolitical, and 10 are conservative (although 3 of these are now in Israel).
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