Bernie Madoff - By Michael Moore

[kpete]

Bernie Madoff
By Michael Moore



Elie Wiesel called him a "God." His investors called him a "genius." But, proving correct that old adage from the country and western song, you never really know what goes on behind closed doors.

Bernie Madoff, for at least 20 years, ran a Ponzi scheme on thousands of clients, among them the people you and I would consider the best and brightest. Business leaders, celebrities, charities, even some of his own relatives and his defense attorney were taken for a ride (this has to be the first time a lawyer was hosed by the client).

We're clearly in one of those historic, game changing years: up is down, red is blue and black is President. Aside from Obama himself, no person will provide a more iconic face of this end-of-capitalism-as-we-know-it year than Bernard Lawrence Madoff.

Which is too bad. Yes, he stole $65 billion from some already quite wealthy people. I know that's upsetting to them because rich guys like Bernie are not supposed to be stealing from their own kind. Crime, thievery, looting — that's what happens on the other side of town. The rules of the money game on Park Avenue and Wall Street are comprised of things like charging the public 29% credit card interest, tricking people into taking out a second mortgage they can't afford, and concocting a student loan system that has graduates in hock for the next 20 years. Now that's smart business! And it's legal. That's where Bernie went wrong — his scheming, his trickery was an outrage both because it was illegal and because he preyed on his side of the tracks.

more at:
http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1894410_1893837_1894189,00.html

[Baby Snooks]

1. The question of when Bernie Madoff became a crook...

"Where's the mug shot of Phil Gramm, the senator who wrote the bill to strip the system of its regulations, or of the President who signed that bill?"

There is this question of when the bottom fell out of what was a legitimate investment business. That one quote seems to indicate when. Bernie Madoff obviously lost a lot of money in the deregulated markets and kept trying to make it back. We will never really know. Because it would focus on the real problem which is the deregulation of the markets by Phil Gramm and Bill Clinton.

And of course Alan Greenspan who personally I believe is Satan himself.

As for those who point to the ongoing "other side" of Bernie Madoff & Company through the years, including his mother, everyone on Wall Street is a little sleazy, a little larcenous, and a little willing to have their hands slapped from time to time. All part of doing business on Wall Street.

And Congress for some reason seems not to have a problem with the way Wall Street does business.

[Optical.Catalyst]

2. That's where Bernie went wrong -

Michael Moore knowns how to get to the heart of the matter

[Blue_Tires]

3. kick

great stuff

[bertman]

4. Beautifully written and nailed to the "T".

Recommend.

Where's the $45 BILLION that went to BOA through TARP? Good question.