Has there EVER been a more aptly named schemer/scammer?Investors inquiring about their money, and others, gather in the lobby of where Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC, have their offices Friday, Dec. 12, 2008, in New York. Bernard L. Madoff, the founder of Madoff Securities, was arrested on a securities fraud charge Thursday, accused of running a phony investment business that amounted to nothing more than a "giant Ponzi scheme." Federal prosecutors said he told employees Wednesday that it had been insolvent for years, losing at least $50 billion. (AP Photo/Diane Bondareff) - AP
Col. Ponzi made his name for himself.
Madoff = Made-off.
Bernie had the name going in...
Bwahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha (gasp) Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha.
The 'funniest' part? Apparently, the folks with whose gold he "madoff" were overwhelmingly his co-religionists. He INVITED only certain people to share in his system. Seems like he TARGETED them at the fancy, exclusive country clubs where they all richly and exclusively circulated: Clusterstock has a comprehensive list of all of Madoff's victims. Check it out...
A philanthropist, too, he 'invested' for funds and foundations, too. He even ripped off Elie Wiessel's charity.
Some folks had misgivings, but as long as the money kept rolling in, they were able to keep their suspicions at bay.
Of course, the propaganda press is busy, putting lipstick on the pig: Barrons (the financial rag) follows on with the announcement that, practiced honestly (BO-WAHAHAHAHA), Madoff's 'strategy' is functional. No, really...
Who can avoid the impression that Madoffs's bogus plan was nothing more or less than a microcosm of the whole derivative 'economy' which is still catastrophically collapsing around us? Wanna bet he's a philosophical radical 'free-trader' GOPuke?
The irony notwithstanding, it should go without saying that this has nothing to do with the fact that Madoff and most of his clients were Jewish; it's true this scheme isn't "Jewish" in any essential way. It's just dishonest, and no 'group' holds the franchise on rapacious mendacity. Just as the 'settlers' on the West Bank do not represent a fundamentally "Jewish" attitude toward ethnic cleansing. It's just that the thugs trying to ethnically cleanse Palestine advertize themselves as Jews.
During the 19th Century, "We" (the USofA) used immigrants--the Irish and the Germans, especially--the same way, pushing them west into indigenous lands; violently, fatally genocidally dispossessing the natives, advertizing ourselves proudly as "Americans" acting out and driven by "God's" Manifest Destiny, and shriven by our exceptionality of any moral duty to our victims! There weren't a lot of Jews in that bunch; mostly Catholics, but also Baptists, Methodists, and Presbyterians, iirc...
It seems to me that waht Madoff's "success" story illustrates primarily is the dangers of thinking 'tribally': i.e., "I'm Jewish, Madoff is Jewish, so surely he'll do the right thing with my money." *That's* essentialist, parochial thinking. And *that's* what got many of his 'investors' into trouble. The fact is that he traded upon that kind of thing. I'm guessing neither Naom Chomsky's name nor Naomi Wolf's names are gonna be on Madoff's client list.
BTW: This, of course, has it's proper analogue in 'identity politics.'
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