Us Economics: One Big Ponzi Scheme

[The Eagle]

Interesting piece on aljazeera.net:

http://english.aljaz...1257526294.html

Thank you, Bernie, for breaking your silence - even if you are still clinging to that cover-up mode you adopted since you took the entirety of the blame for your crimes.

What is clear is that ripping off the rich is punished far more severely than ripping off the poor. The lengthy sentence you were given spared countless other greedsters and goniffs from facing the music -what music there is.

In an interview - with a reporter from The New York Times who is writing a book to cash in on a man who has already cashed out -we learn, in the vaguest terms, that Mr M believes the banks he did his crooked business with "should have known" his figures did not figure.Keeping with the deceit that has served him well over the years, he names no names.

That said, how right he may be. There were many who should have known and done something about it. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and other regulators for one. Perhaps The New York Timesfor another. Remember, it was Madoff's confession to his sons that started him on his way to his new 12' x 12' home from home - in a federal correctional institute, where he may dream of his seized penthouse, homes and yachts - rather than any press expose.

For years, he went undetected by business journalists, who knew - or should have known - what he was up to. There are even questions about the speed with which he was sentenced, preventing him from being tried - a process which, through diligent cross-examination, would have brought us more information on the details of his dirty deals.

Do not believe all you read

Even The New York Times interview is being disputed, reports the New York Post:"The trustee representing thousands of Bernard Madoff's victims disputed a report that he personally grilled the Ponzi monster in prison."

"There has been no direct communication between them," said David Sheehan, the chief counsel for the court-appointed trustee, Irving Picard, after The New York Times reported that Picard and Madoff had met over the summer.

"The Times later changed a quote from Madoff and altered some text online that had implied Picard personally visited Bernie in the Butner, NC, lockup where he is serving a 150-year sentence. Picard did not dispute that his legal team met with Madoff."

Madoff is also still not coming clean about the web of alliances hehad internationally, as well as in New York. We live in a global economy after all. We now know of Swiss and Austrian connections - but what about Israel, where this ingratiating handler was well known for his connections with Jewish philanthropists and institutions? So far,that story has yet to be told.

At the same time, the people investigating Madoff are making a small fortune. According to the Financial Times:"The army of lawyers and consultants helping to recover funds from Bernard Madoff's $19.6bn fraud stand to earn more than $1.3bn in fees, according to new figures that detail the cost of liquidating the huge Ponzi scheme."

The comments of readers to The Times appear to be more insightful than the paper's own reports. Here is one from Texas: "I actually, sort of, feel sorry for this man. He was just doing what many investment firms were doing at the same time. He has been imprisoned as a scapegoat - yet many people since then - and to this day - are doing the same thing. Where are the indictments against the thousands of other people who did the same thing - and knowingly led this country into financial disaster?"

[...]

Madoff was a scamster who certainly deserves his jailtime, but why are all the other Banksters still out there making huge profits off our backs?

--

Edited February 21, 2011 by wise_eagle

[Scott Sando]

Because

[interestrateripoff]

The elites profit from stealing from the poor, so nothing is done.

Madoff got away with for so long because he was supposedly generating a profit, whilst that charade could continue no one was bothered. As soon as Madoff realised he couldn't keep up the pretence presumable the money need to keep it going had got too great and he admitted it was a fraud he faced jail.

I wonder how long before Western main stream media start to question the elites?

[The Eagle]

I wonder how long before Western main stream media start to question the elites?

Not as long as the MSM are owned by the same elites that they are supposed to question.

Meanwhile alternative Internet media is becoming more and more mainstream and the traditional MSM are loosing more and more readers/viewers...

[The Spaniard]

.... but why are all the other Banksters still out there making huge profits off our backs?

A rhetorical question, I know, but the short answer is because they have a stranglehold on the rest of us by lending us our essential means of exchange at interest.

Suppose you were a member of a babysitting circle that operated by members paying each other with mutually agreed tokens.

Would you tolerate using tokens that had to be borrowed at interest by everyone else from some specially privileged couple within the circle?

This special couple then do no actual babysitting themselves, but pay for all their own needs (and more) by spending back the tokens they receive as interest from the other members.

Of course you wouldn't, you would issue collectively a suitable number of tokens to circulate without further cost to the circle.

Now think about the matter at the national level, as these people do:

http://www.positivemoney.org.uk

[Realistbear]

Interesting piece on aljazeera.net:

http://english.aljaz...1257526294.html

Madoff was a scamster who certainly deserves his jailtime, but why are all the other Banksters still out there making huge profits off our backs?

--

Its a good thing we are not like those Americans!

Just look at those who are rewarded richly here: Banksters, Council Staff, MPs, BTlers.....................................

TBH we are worse than the Amercians in my view as their corruption is mostly at the top whereas we are a thoroughly corrupted country from top to bottom. A nation of cutpurses, thieves and blaggards.

[Kilham]

A rhetorical question, I know, but the short answer is because they have a stranglehold on the rest of us by lending us our essential means of exchange at interest.

Suppose you were a member of a babysitting circle that operated by members paying each other with mutually agreed tokens.

Would you tolerate using tokens that had to be borrowed at interest by everyone else from some specially privileged couple within the circle?

This special couple then do no actual babysitting themselves, but pay for all their own needs (and more) by spending back the tokens they receive as interest from the other members.

Of course you wouldn't, you would issue collectively a suitable number of tokens to circulate without further cost to the circle.

Now think about the matter at the national level, as these people do:

http://www.positivemoney.org.uk

Problem is that special couple use some of their profits to hire a couple of guys with baseball bats who make sure you only use their tokens.

[The Spaniard]

Problem is that special couple use some of their profits to hire a couple of guys with baseball bats who make sure you only use their tokens.

Indeed.

But, to stretch the metaphor, let's do what we can to ensure that enough members of the circle become informed and realize that the debilitating status quo is not a law of nature, but can be changed to a fairer, more transparent, more stable and sustainable system.

[winkie]

...I thought Madoff was ripping off the rich.

[The Eagle]

...I thought Madoff was ripping off the rich.

Exactly, that's why he's the only Bankster in jail.