Ponzi
by tdaxp ~ December 15th, 2008
Bernie Madoff is the former Chairman of NASDAQ, former head of Madoff Investment Securities, and is at the center of a $50 billion ponzi scheme — the largest in history.
In this clip 2007, Madoff focuses on the ruleset automation side of the business, and the benefits that brings:
“In today’s regulatory environment, it’s virtually impossible to violate rules. This is something the public doesn’t really understand. If you read things in the newspaper, and you see someone violating a rule, you say, “You know, they’re always doing this,” but it’s impossible to a violation to go undetected, certainly for a considerable amount of time.”
His website is now a bit more somber:
The Honorable Louis L. Stanton, Federal Judge in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, has appointed Lee S. Richards of the law firm Richards Kibbe & Orbe LLP receiver over the assets and accounts of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC (“BMIS”) as per the attached order.
December 16th, 2008 at 12:52 pm
I was amused that so many “smart” “elite” people thought this guy could get 20% returns when the markets where crashing. I
t demonstrates that the elites have a bias in thinking that a great man / czar / uberplanner can make superior decisions (maybe with special knowledge) and beat the markets (regardless that there is no evidence of that).
It demonstrates there is always the urge/bias to central planning and central planners.
December 17th, 2008 at 6:40 am
Cattle rustling used to be a hanging offense.
Finance rustling still should be.
A Mr. 麦伯纳 would be short for this world if this had happened on the Shanghai Stock Exchange.
December 17th, 2008 at 8:55 am
I am not against him being executed (the justice system shoudl be partially about vengeance).
The criminally-inclined uberplanners think they are too smart to be caught, so until there are some heads on pikes, they will keep popping up.
December 17th, 2008 at 9:12 pm
Way I figure, if he wants to take risks, we should help him! There are these places called Iraq and Afghanistan where we can use more soldiers . . .
December 18th, 2008 at 6:11 am
[...] Ponzi [...]
December 19th, 2008 at 7:44 am
Purpleslog,
The case for executing him goes beyond just vengeance — to socially deter others, the penalty for a crime should be enough to deter the crime if everyone caught doing it was caught, by the inverse of the probability of actually being caught.
Michael,
The amount of talent that Wall Street has wasted is incredible. [1]
[1] http://scienceblogs.com/gnxp/2008/12/scientists_play_economic_paul.php#more