Bernie Madoff is in the news for bilking investors out of some $50B, including several charitable organizations who promised donors nice retirement incomes in exchange for their donated assets, then turned them over to people like Madoff to manage. Oops.
"I have no sympathy for Madoff," writes the NYT's Thomas Friedman. "But the fact is, his alleged Ponzi scheme was only slightly more outrageous than the 'legal' scheme that Wall Street was running, fueled by cheap credit, low standards and high greed. After all, it was legal for banks to give risky mortgages to people who couldn't afford them, bundle a group of them into bonds, and then receive premium ratings for these bonds. If that isn't a pyramid scheme, what is?"
Thanks, Tom. Couldn't have put it better myself. And if that's unregulated capitalism at work, it's time to impose some discipline from without. It's obvious they have none within.
Nor do we, who borrow beyond our means for better lifestyles, or seek "too good to be true" investment returns on blind faith. We the people are complicit in this.
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1 comment:
Just stay outta my pockets Big Brother- you old Republican you, right? Right? ;-) Please- as God is neither a dyed in the wool Republican nor Democrat, neither am I :-D c u soon!
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