Meet the Madoff MinionsMore than a year after Bernie Madoff's massive ponzi scheme rip-off culminates with his imprisonment, Mother Jones magazine takes a look at what's happened to his inner circle since then. The answer: Nothing much, really. But it got us to wondering: has this story continued to resonate for you, if indeed it ever did? And for readers outside the U.S., has it succeeded in changing your view of America somehow?
8 Comments:
All I can say is, whether or not there's a heaven, there'd better be a hell because this guy belongs there ... right next to Allen (and his wrench) and Phillips (with his screwdriver.)
You said it, Mike. I always get a special chuckle out of Letterman's countdown clock, charting how much time Madoff (or "the weasle" as he likes to call him) has left on his 150-year sentence.
I think money must be like a narcotic to some people. Why else would they put so much energy into getting more of it than a single person needs for their livelihood? I'm listening to Greg Mortenson's Three Cups of Tea on audio book this week, and it seems an apt contrast. He put a ton of energy into raising just $12,000 for building his first developing world school.
But how much is really enough, Britta? It's a dynamic as ancient as the scriptures: when you finally reach numbers that you once thought to be enough, "enough" quickly gets defined upward. That's a fairly universal thing, I think. And speaking for myself only, after living the penurious writer's life for years, I hope to experience it one day!
Very true, but with Madoff, he certainly lost perspective on how best (ie legally) to achieve wealth and earn your fellows' trust. When you start the Ettorre Mid-Cap Growth Fund, I know the prospectus will be on the up and up.
That gave me a chuckle. Okay, I just dropped that prospectus in the mail to you. Please send your check ASAP. The rest of you, please do the same, as your resources permit.
People like Madoff intrigue, but don't surprise me. The magnitude of his greed and narcissism is astounding, though.
That's precisely the point. The magnitude of it was simply mind-boggling. You kind of run out of adjectives here. But I think it's a cautionary tale for how blind and trusting our so-called regulatory agencies became.
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