Sign Of The Times

Bernard Madoff, the former chairman of the NASDAQ stock market who now runs a private investment firm, was arrested today. This is from the DOJ press release:

On Dec. 10, 2008, Madoff informed the Senior Employees, in substance, that his investment advisory business was a fraud. Madoff stated that he was “finished,” that he had “absolutely nothing,” that “it’s all just one big lie,” and that it was “basically, a giant Ponzi scheme. Madoff stated that the business was insolvent, and that it had been for years. Madoff also stated that he estimated the losses from this fraud to be at least approximately $50 billion. Madoff further informed the Senior Employees that, in approximately one week, he planned to surrender to authorities, but before he did that, he had approximately $200-300 million left, and he planned to use that money to make payments to certain selected employees, family and friends. Madoff, 70, currently resides in New York City.

$50,000,000,000. As Barack Obama has said, “The economy is going to get worse before it gets better.”

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  • http://phd9.blogspot.com Paul Dirks

    Mr. Madoff is principal Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC of New York, which he founded in 1960.

    Hmmmmm…
    48 Years in the business. I bet he has a lot of influential friends. Many of them might still be in important positions. Stay tuned for 96 hours of incessant speculation as to who else might be caught up in the ‘web’ and who needs to account for the possibility that they had any contact with him.
    .
    No?
    .
    I didn’t think so.

  • http://pourmecoffee.blogspot.com pourmecoffee

    Turned in by his sons. Nice way to wrap up the old lifearoo that.

  • exile500

    Unless he has some connection to Obama, no one will pay attention.

  • exile500

    This might be a good time to make Mitt Romney the “NASDAQ czar”, btw.

  • http://pourmecoffee.blogspot.com pourmecoffee

    Um, it was the front page SCREAMER on the N.Y. Post today and the A1 splash on the Wall Street Journal. What more do you want?

  • exile500

    What more do you want?

    .

    An endless discussion from Cokie and the gang on Sunday. The same one we’ll get about Obama’s “connection” to Blowdriedovich.

  • http://pourmecoffee.blogspot.com pourmecoffee

    Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar, Sigmund. Madoff is getting the vilification he deserves.

  • jarmel

    If these numbers are accurate then this guy is one of the greatest thieves in world history. 50 BILIION, wow I wish I was related to him.

  • exile500

    Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar, Sigmund. Madoff is getting the vilification he deserves.

    .

    Sorry I won’t be happy til his local Fox affiliate gives me a few quotes from the last guy who used his bathroom.

  • JJ

    It does kind of take your breath away, doesn’t it? Isn’t that the same amount of money that was going to save the big 3? Wacky times.

  • http://pourmecoffee.blogspot.com pourmecoffee

    @exile – Consensus!

  • queencersei

    Exactly JJ. Everyone is out to roast the Big 3, who aren’t really responsbile for this economic catastrophe. But the ones who are responsbile for the cratered economy are by and large getting away scot free. At least are person in the financial sector is going to get nailed.

  • exile500

    Isn’t that the same amount of money that was going to save the big 3?

    .

    Yeah, but that 50 billion was pissed away by the magic of the free market. There’s no moral hazard there.

  • viciousmaniac

    An endless discussion from Cokie and the gang on Sunday. The same one we’ll get about Obama’s “connection” to Blowdriedovich.
    .
    Obama and Blarghovich and ratings winners and this douchebag is not.
    .
    Solution: stop watching MSM news. It’s not good for your brains anyway.

  • viciousmaniac

    *are. Preview, come home!

  • exile500

    Solution: stop watching MSM news. It’s not good for your brains anyway.

    .

    So if I stop reading economic reports, the economy will get better? Millions watch the MSM news and think (and vote) accordingly, whether I watch it or not.

  • bobcn1

    Will the next conservative extremist that complains about regulations interfering with the magic of an unbridled free market be laughed out of the room? Will ideology continue to trump reality for that crowd? Will they ever learn? Will we be able to survive their greed and foolishness?

  • viciousmaniac

    You don’t need the MSM for “economic reports”. Or do you mean you really read up on economics from the MSM? If so, oy vey.
    .
    Millions watch the MSM news and think (and vote) accordingly, whether I watch it or not.
    .
    Yeah, I know. That’s one of many reason why the country is in the pits. But I hope you’re not holding your breath waiting for the MSM (or the public) to change on their own.

  • exile500

    You don’t need the MSM for “economic reports”.

    .

    Not my point. My point is that ignoring it won’t back it go away.

  • newfloridian

    Lots of rich people are no longer rich….. Let’s all hear a collective Awwwwwww Tooooooo Baddddd!

    There are also unfortunately many charitable trusts and other large charities involved.

    Just like the junk mortgages he was offering people unrealistic returns on teir investment and everyone was so greedy they didn’t stop to ask any questions.

    We’ll also soon know if there were any organized crime funds caught up in this ponzi scheme because people will start dying. If I’m Madoff I’m considering painless ways to achieve that etermal dirt nap because he won’t be able to afford the security he will need to fend off not only organized crime folks, but the very wealthy, Arab shieks, etc. He is literally “dead man walking.”

  • formerlyjames

    Call Orkin. The thieves are like roaches. newfloridian, I would rejoice with you except that the middle class goes down as the rich thieves do. Only the rich thieves always have assets stored away, or ability to get more, like writing a book telling us what suckers we all are.

  • newfloridian

    We in the middle class get screwed anyway, it’s a no win situation. However once in a while some at the top get screwed and it’s time to rejoice. Because they thought they were too rich and powerful to get hosed! Just remember if they lose it all, it’s just a whole lot tougher for them to crash and burn than the typical middle class person who practices living on the edge. They fall harder and they lack the coping skills of the middle class person who hits bottom. We rebound, they sometimes don’t.

    Money is a real Mother that bends the soul and buries good intentions. When you got gobs of it people become things that you use and toss away. When you lose that wealth and rejoin humanity the dirt that is humanity finds a way to bury you. It won’t be pretty for some who tonight are now crashing to earth like a burnt out cinder of a shooting star.

  • Cliff

    You know, I am not 100% convinced that Scherer is the person to be talking to us about economics.
    .
    Some might say that at least he’s not writing tabloid trash about Obama, but I feel he may just be buying our approval until he f–ks us in the ass again with another concern troll story.

  • kathy

    This is very sad, and slightly incredible. How he could have run this for twenty years without his sons in the business having any inkling there was something wrong is kind of baffling – and yet, that’s the story currently. You have to think this is going to make more and more people liquidate their investments in order not to get caught holding an empty bag when the next paper giant falls.

  • 53_3

    Let’s see here.
    .
    A guy snatches $100 from a cash register and gets maybe 3 years.
    .
    A guy who scams $50,000,000,000 should get how many years?
    .
    Just thinking out loud about white collar vs blue collar crime…

  • Art Pepper

    Meanwhile the Senate GOP has screwed the Big3 in their desire to screw anyone in a union job. That’s a lack of change I can believe in!

  • 53_3

    A thought just occurred to me:
    .
    As bad as the GOP has painted Black Americans over the years, do you suppose that now, the “shoe” is on the other “foot”, so to speak, and that the Republicans are trying to steal all the silverware before they get kicked out?
    .
    I mean excuuuuuuuse me for being, uh, “divisive”…

  • 53_3

    As a matter of fact, I’m sure that’s what they are doing! The Feds aren’t telling us just who is getting all that money, while they publically stiff the UAW and the rest of us, but
    .
    When Obama gets in office on January 20, he’s going to find the treasury cupboards bare.
    .
    Tom Brokaw: Obama has just announced the treasury building is empty. Mr. Bernanke, can you give us an explanation?
    .
    I don’t know, Tom, but the last person I saw was a 6 foot 4 Black guy leaving the offices. I mean, I can’t say for sure, because I woke up with a headache and Oprah’s signature carved on my chest.
    .
    So you think…

  • formerlyjames

    This Madoff thing is just so incredible (we need a new word after all the rape and pillage of the Republicans), I can’t get it out of my head. Was there any accounting over all this time? It seems that the accounting profession, aka Certified Public Accountants, is sleeping while the fuel supply is ravaged. The SEC? The guy is a “respected registered investment advisor”. Former Chairman of NASDAQ. Holy shhhhhhtttttt.
    .
    I know Obama has assembled the financial team and all, and I hope appoints an honest and outspoken Comptroller for the GAO. They don’t seem to be much in the news either lately.
    .
    I see that Maddog, er, Madoff, is subject to a max 20 yrs. and $5 million fine. I would see that as seriously overshadowed by $50 billion and all the grief he has caused. He’s 70 years old and no doubt has had quite a ride. Nice way to end it.

  • http://pourmecoffee.blogspot.com pourmecoffee

    Everybody wants the candy.

  • rabgarcia

    Let’s not pin the guy Madoff down alone. Aren’t they all, meaning those who invested their funds to him part of the cycle of greed?

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