What have we learned about the Madoff "scam"?

[underpants]

For months now we have been hearing the snickering condescension of the punditry and other servants of social Darwinism laugh at those silly silly peons who didn’t read the contract when they signed off on loans. Of course there is accountability on both sides but there has been almost no mention of any such accountability for the people who created and sold these bad PRODUCTS (like, say explosive cars or baby pajamas back in the day). No no no can’t be anything wrong coming from the Masters of the Universe who signed off on this on the other end.

This was the same backhanded disdain that the members of the National Guard got when they suddenly got sent overseas when that clearly was not part of the general understanding when they signed up. Same for the regular Army types who dared mentioned DOD regulations about extended deployments and downtime between deployments.

Tsk tsk tsk silly little peons, you should have more finely tuned your business acumen before jumping into someone else’s game (that we all have been drawn in to really).


It should be noted that the real problem for the financial houses wasn’t that they built a home on such a shaky foundation but that they built condos on top of it. And the more of a Master you were the higher up and better was the view (so as to look down on the peons).

Now all of a sudden we have us a SCAM. Oh my.

Some of the Master class themselves got taken. Didn’t they read the contract? WAS there a contract? Did they just take statements at their word? Don’t they know anything about money???

Let’s look at exactly who got taken
Lawrence Velvel dean of the Massachusetts School of Law
Long Island economist Irwin Kellner
New York Mets owner Fred Wilpon
former Philadelphia Eagles owner Norman Braman
J. Ezra Merkin, the chairman of GMAC Financial Services
Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) was also listed having an account with Madoff
http://www.newsday.com/business/ny-bzscam1412270036dec14,0,5156462.story

Suddenly we have us some real bona fide VICTIMS. Their loyal servants can’t get on the air fast enough to shake their heads and wonder how the oh so elitely educated and titled could fall for such a thing …..at the hand of a guy who basically used his eliteness to pull them in.

I am reminded of a former neighbor who, with his new bride, bought his first house. Both were rather elegantly educated as some pretty fine schools. On signing day she was as nervous as we have all been trained to be. He shrugged it off. He was a bank examiner for the Federal Reserve, “I see these things everyday. They are all the same”. He told her just to sign and initial where they had it marked.

All the same indeed.

[Karenina]

1. ...

[truedelphi]

2. I just watched the ABC talking head interviewing some of the

Professional investment gurus about this scandal.

They pretty much agreed that the reason this scandal didn't unravel sooner was because this firm was offering solid returns.

From what I can tell, most of our current day economic "trends" are just one big bad Ponzi scheme. So you almost have to wonder whom Madoff had to insult so that he is called out for his crimes.

I mean, who the hell created SIV's? And then who created the "Credit Deault Swap" concept?
We have 180 Trillion dollars still outstanding inside this derivative mess. Each of us will owe $ 500,000 a piece if someone doesn't hold someone accountable soon, instead of rewarding them.

Sad thing is, Geithner and Rubin are both up for key economic positions in Obama's administration. Yet this duo are among the very group of people who helped create these things. Apparently their crowd didn't see any harm in their unnatural existence until the house of cards came tumbling down.

Won't somebody somewhere brush off the RICCO statute??

[Karenina]

3. His SONS turned him in!

[Octafish]

5. Perphas they wanted to protect him.

A guy who gets to be boss of NASDAQ doesn't operate in a vacuum.
A big fish needs protection, with all those sharks about.
Maybe the boys were protecting their pop?

[meow2u3]

4. It seems to take billionaires getting scammed for the government to notice

that Wall Street is corrupt to the core. How long have the middle class and those who are barely rich been screaming for justice, only for their complaints to fall on deaf ears?

[notadmblnd]

6. Our complaints fall and deaf ears and we suck it up and take our losses

AFAIC, these rich bastards can suck it up and take their losses too.

[sarcasmo]

9. Exactly, if this were average people would this story be this big.

[nichomachus]

7. Exactly

They want to hold a grocery clerk in Peoria responsible for not understanding the confusing terms in tiny print on a mountain of mortgage docs. But, the "smartest guys in the room" got fleeced by a huckster.

The point is, though, that the ultra-wealthy who got fleeced knew that Madoff was doing something illegal. They were OK with that, but they didn't realize he was stealing from them.

[randr]

8. We should all forgive them a small character flaw?

It's not really stealing if you are already rich and a member of some exclusive club, right?
Just a little greed that the uberwealthy need to keep the rest of employed?

[machI]

10. What did we learn? Greed doesn't pay, but it can cause other people not involved to pay