Bernard Madoff is finally in jail: Sharing an Editorial On This Supervillain

Share |

[Radio_Lady]

Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.
Better it is to be of an humble spirit with the lowly, than to divide the spoil with the proud.

-- Proverbs 16: 18-19 (King James Version)

Ellen's thoughts: By pleading "guilty" on all eleven counts, will we ever really know how many people were involved?

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

From http://www.DallasNews.com :

Editorial: The lessons of the Bernard Madoff mess

Posted by Radio_Lady on Thursday, March 12, 2009

Today in a federal court in Manhattan, alleged mega-swindler Bernard Madoff is expected to plead guilty to having bilked investors out of nearly $65 billion in one of history's most spectacular frauds.

In a way, this is too bad. A jury trial probably would have provided some sense of public catharsis and reckoning for the Wall Street super-villain who has become the face of the economic collapse. But Madoff appears determined to deny us the satisfaction.

The money people entrusted to Madoff may be gone, but there are some extremely costly pearls of wisdom to be salvaged from this terrible affair. Among them:

Money does not buy intelligence. Madoff did not prey on the poor. He chose his clients largely from the ranks of the rich and well connected. He promised them up to a 46 percent return on their investments – a crackpot figure, but one that many smart, sophisticated people were willing to accept. Why?

Because crowds can be foolish. Madoff cultivated a reputation as a financial wizard who could make his friends very rich. He informally marketed himself as a status arbiter. He manipulated human vanity and crowd psychology.

Even more painful, piety is no guarantee of integrity. The Jewish Madoff milked Jewish religious and philanthropic networks to gain the confidence of his marks. (Similarly, alleged Texas $8 billion fraudster Allen Stanford's staff plied clients with Christian religiosity.) In an admission that's cosmically heartbreaking, Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel, who was wiped out by Madoff, said recently, "I should have learned, of course, that a human being is capable of anything."

We will always have Madoffs, given human nature, which seems incapable of learning the lesson the Book of Proverbs phrases this way: "Wealth from get-rich-quick schemes quickly disappears; wealth from hard work grows."

That thought is worth pondering these days – but be careful. In 2005, a Stanford manager cited that very verse in an e-mail goosing his salesmen to move more merchandise.

As the world-weary sage of Ecclesiastes warns, "There is nothing new under the sun."

More on the hearing's outcome at:

http://www.comcast.net/articles/news-general/20090312/Madoff.Scandal/

[Andrea]

I am fearful that Madoff made a plea agreement in order to retain some of the wealth for himself and his wife.  In addition, he will be going to a comfortable minimum-security prison, I'm sure.  I can accept a guilty plea in lieu of a trial, but I hope the sentence is sufficiently harsh.  He should be made to suffer.

[Radio_Lady]

While I am quoting the Bible, what about Ruth Madoff, his wife?

The Biblical Ruth said, "Whither thou goest, I will go... Wherever thou lodgest, I will lodge.  Thy people shall be my people, my love...."  By trying to sequester her home and jewelry from the court proceedings, I think she violates the spirit of marriage, where "two shall become one."

In other words, she should go to jail also, and perhaps lose her expensive homes.

My sister-in-law has been ill with chronic fatigue syndrome and totally housebound for years.  Her working husband handled all financial matters for both of them, but lost his job.  Recently, he had a stroke, and has been incapacitated due to memory loss.  It was only then that my SIL found out he failed to make payments on their mortgage for one and a half years.   This is small potatoes from a family member, but they both face eviction and auction of their home for liens against it.  How is this different from the Madoff case?

My lawyer father used to say, "Ignorance of the law is no excuse."

[waiting for hope]

Well - here is Madoff's new crib:



Kinda looks like my first dorm room! 

[catchawave]

Well - here is Madoff's new crib:



Kinda looks like my first dorm room! 

Cut that space in half, and it was daughter's first apartment in NYC @$1500/mo...with 2 roommates.   

I have to chuckle at the Madoff news because I've never been "rich" enough to be so stupid.  We played the markets in our early marriage and realized our odds were like that of Vegas!  We're talking 1k here and there and always pulled out when they dropped to $500.  Happily been putting money into a member owned credit union, still poor but secure in our future 

Oh and those stocks have been long gone, nope, we wouldn't have been millionaires today.  No regrets.  However, we did have a friend who bet on new company, years ago, called Dell.  He's a millionaire now 

[waiting for hope]

Cut that space in half, and it was daughter's first apartment in NYC @$1500/mo...with 2 roommates.   

I have to chuckle at the Madoff news because I've never been "rich" enough to be so stupid.  We played the markets in our early marriage and realized our odds were like that of Vegas!  We're talking 1k here and there and always pulled out when they dropped to $500.  Happily been putting money into a member owned credit union, still poor but secure in our future 

Oh and those stocks have been long gone, nope, we wouldn't have been millionaires today.  No regrets.  However, we did have a friend who bet on new company, years ago, called Dell.  He's a millionaire now 

Kinda like Forest Gump with Apple - we have never really done anything with the market - have had two 401K's that were cashed out when I left the job - my hubby's paycheck has the insurance taken out and we always thought about doing a 401K but glad we didn't. People are starting to save again - maybe not good for the short term but a good thing for the long haul.

[Radio_Lady]

Mark Seal, who writes for Vanity Fair, has a new article on Madoff and his victims. (He appears on "Larry King Live" tonight -- Thursday, March 12, 2009 -- with a panel and a guest host.)

I have no idea why I am drawn to this history.  I was born Jewish and I lived in Florida for years.  Then I spent more years in New York City and Boston. In the 1960s, I worked for a millionaire and saw what he went through as he was addicted to drugs.  Once, I was a guest on the David Susskind TV show (he is mentioned in the article).

It is devastating to read all eight pages on line, but I just did.  Why? I've always wondered how the super rich do it, and maybe I am a little bit envious. The article quotes the line from "Fiddler on the Roof" -- "If I Were A Rich Man..."  The lyric says, "When you're rich, they think you really know."

If you want to hurtle yourself into the Madoff details, here's the link:

http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2009/04/madoff200904

One quote on the Vanity Fair splash page really grips me: "If Madoff had a conscience, he would have committed suicide by now."