Last week I caused a bit of a controversy on Fox News when I suggested that Bernie Madoff might do more good than harm in the long run – there are some good investing lessons for everyone to note.
Ten More to Be Charged in Madoff Case; British GDP Suffers Highest Drop in Half a Century; Housing Price Drops Slowing; GM Attempts to Emerge From Bankruptcy; Corn & Soybean Planting Up; AIG Gets Government-Backed Board; Japanese Memory Maker Gets Bailout
Yesterday, the mainstream media whooped and shrieked over the tough sentence handed down to swindler Bernie Madoff. “Madoff got what he deserved,” wrote the columnists. “Mr Madoff’s crimes were extraordinarily evil,” said Judge Denny Chin, who also told the jury that Madoff’s pyramid scheme was “staggering” and “off the chart.”
Oil Takes a Spill; SEC Expands Madoff Investigation; Sony Could Lose Largest Game Publisher; Nasdaq Outpaces Other Indices; Walgreens Misses Street Estimates; U.S. Car Brands Close Gap with Toyota Quality…
The financial press has been flooded the last few weeks with stories of the billions of dollars lost in the giant Ponzi scheme orchestrated by Bernie Madoff. No one knows for sure, but it is likely that the number of investors that lost everything will run into the thousands.
Give us Madoff! Give us Madoff! “Oil rises to $39 on Bernanke comments…” “Asian stocks rise after Bernanke remarks…” When they turned out the lights and closed the doors in New York last night, the Dow had lost 25 points and oil had gone down to $37.
Junior Mogambo Ranger (JMR) Phil S. was apparently as aghast as I was, so he sent the AP news item that “The Treasury Department opened the door…to using a Citigroup-style rescue package to help other troubled financial institutions”, which referred to the scam of the government “backing billions in risky assets and providing a fresh capital infusion.”
According to the new book Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell, countries that have high PDI’s (power-distance index) respect authority more and are less likely to speak up to or challenge superiors. The evidence cited is the case of a Korean Air flight where the first officer (the co-pilot) knew the plane was in serious trouble, but out of perceived ‘respect’ for the pilot, was slow to suggest otherwise. The result of the first officer’s lack of speaking up was the plane crashing into the side of Nimitz Hill.
Fed sets target for buying mortgage-backed securities… Initial jobless claims fall more than expected… S&P 500 futures up 0.4 pct, Dow futures up 0.2 pct, Nasdaq futures off 0.3 pct
A lot of investors woke up recently to find their money had ‘disappeared’ in Bernie Madoff’s $50 billion Ponzi scheme. And it all happened under the noses of the regulators. Byron King says there are probably many more scammers out there. And the US government is among them. He says this just strengthens the case to buy gold and silver.