Bernie Madoff (actually pronounced made-off) -- True American Folk Hero (John Kelley)

[Tace]

John Kelley -- World News Trust

Dec. 24, 2008 -- While most folks on the bottom get the shaft, Bernie Madoff made it big. Madoff started his firm with $5,000 in 1960 at 21 years old. He supposedly earned it from installing sprinklers and working as a life guard, a pretty daunting task at 1960 wages even in Long Island. Bernie has now admitted to swindling rich folks out of $50 billion. Now if any of these people had any idea of how hard it would have been to save $5,000 in 1960 at those kind of jobs they never would have invested with him to start with.

Because he makes the rich look foolish, he is not in jail. Madoff is now grounded by the court, the con goes on. He can only go out of his $5 million dollar Manhattan home from 7 a.m. until 9 p.m. and is restricted to Connecticut, southern New York State and the city. He did have to turn in his passport, and can no longer visit his two estates on Long Island, or the one in Palm Beach, or the one in France. That was because he couldn’t find four friends to co-sign for his bail.

Pictures of Bernie out for a stroll seem to make him seem like someone those of us on the bottom might even admire. You see Bernie, on his way up learned something a lot of people, rich or poor, don’t know. The rich aren’t any smarter than the rest of us. Of course they want to believe that and they just want you to believe that. Hence the title, Masters of the Universe.

His victims were long established wealthy families, hedge funds, big charities, big players on Wall Street, and as the New York madam said, the rest of the list will be revealed. Some of these brilliant people invested their whole family savings with Bernie. They represent la crème de la crème of the moneyed social circuit who created this financial nightmare.

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http://www.worldnewstrust.com/wnt-reports/commentary/bernie-madoff-actually-pronounced-made-off-true-american-folk-hero-john-kelley.html

[still_one]

1. There were more than just the "cream of the crop" who have been destroyed by madoff

Why he is not in jail is beyond me. The risk of him committing suicide is extremely high in my view, and the judge who allowed this is part of the problem

The author obviously does NOT appreciate the depth or the pain that this SOB has caused, and not to just the rich people

Should people have done their due diligence, of course, but that still does not mean they deserved to be swindled as mr. kelley somehow implies

Do the workers at Enron who lost everything deserve to be wiped out?

Do the workers at the BIG three auto companies because of terrible management decisions deserve to be wiped out?

Or how about those who are losing their homes because they were misled about the terms, do they deserve to be hurt?

and if the bush administration had privatized social security, and people were wiped out, would they have deserved it also?

It is funny how a so-called "compassionate" country has no compassion for victims if they don't fall into a presumed proper socio-economic mold

When those recipients of those charities are no longer getting help, or when those "regular" people who invested in funds they didn't realize were also invested with madoff are hurt by the fraud, I hope those pompous asses who sit in judgment of who deserves to be hurt and who doesn't deserve to be hurt realize that blaming the victim is not funny

Where was the SEC? Why did our representatives allow most regulation to protect us to be taken away, is where the fingers should be pointing

[The Backlash Cometh]

3. Madoff's niece married an SEC regulator.

I wonder who he contributed campaign money to?

[still_one]

5. He contributed big time to Democrats and republicans. I have no doubt there are people

who don't want this to come to trial, and it may not

[The Backlash Cometh]

6. I don't even know if he kept books.

I just wonder if he was an ideologue in the vein of Abramoff. Because, this would be a major blow to the neo-cons if the money train just fell off the tracks.

[still_one]

7. There is talk that he didn't act alone, which is just another reason why he should not have been

allowed house arrest

I don't know his political ideologue, but that would be a HUGE irony if deregulation destroys the neocons

[The Backlash Cometh]

8. Good Connection. LOL! That would be sweet irony, indeed.

[still_one]

9. You actually made that connection, and it might be right on /nt

[disndat]

11. Champions of deregulations,

Phil Gramm and Charles Schumer, destroyed Wall Streeters they were trying to help, but made a lot of money for themselves.

[acmavm]

10. Something I'm wondering about...

<snip>
It is funny how a so-called "compassionate" country has no compassion for victims if they don't fall into a presumed proper socio-economic mold

<snip>

You really don't understand? Who are the original victims here? Who is due compassion? And how much 'compassion' has come down to the people in this country who's lives are being destroyed economically because people like your 'victims'? People who supported (with their money, their newspapers and other corporate assets, and their votes) an administration that screwed and cheated 95% of America just to benefit that lucky 5%? And how much truly trickled down? I would say barely enough to cover the bad debts of those same people as they brought our economy and our nation down to its knees. Yeppers, who's benefitting by the bailout? And who's getting $500,000 each from the taxpayers (SPIC)? And who are no doubt gonna put their hands out for a chunk of the bailout booty?

Not the people you're criticizing.

[The Backlash Cometh]

2. Has anyone ever been shanked in Club Fed Prison?

[still_one]

4. my suspicion is that madoff will never make it to any kind of prison

he will be dead before any trial begins

Which is another outrage why he should have NOT been allowed house arrest.