Over at Bystander’s, some sanctimonious caants are talking a load of sanctimonious cant about one of the financial services community’s finer comedians, Bernie Madoff, and why he’s a Very Bad Man Indeed.
They pointed me to this document, which is absolutely superb – the self-pitying ramblings of people who, having grown used to receiving copious quantities of pretend money-for-nothing, now believe their lives are ruined because they have to live off their employee pensions.
My comment there was:
Some people who were super-rich are now rich; some people who were rich are now on the same level as everyone else. And all of them were *utterly, unimaginably stupid* to entrust their money to someone like Madoff. Their whiny sense of entitlement doesn’t exactly contribute to one’s sympathy for them, either. “Oh noes, I’m no longer a gazillionaire, instead I just have to live on my pension like every other bloody pensioner…”
For those who’re wondering ‘what happened to the money’, there never was any – he paid out the $60bn that he received as fake profits to his investors. In other words, he took $60bn from gullible shmucks, and paid it out mostly to the same gullible shmucks. That’s why ‘harmless redistribution’ above – the scheme’s only impact was to reward early investors at the expense of latecomers, like all Ponzi schemes.
…and if I were a US taxpayer, I’d be marching in the streets against the greedy morons getting a penny of my money in compo.
…and I stand by every word. I simply don’t understand tough sentencing for financial crimes, given that money simply doesn’t matter that much, and nearly everyone who loses out in a financial scam thoroughly deserves to do so.
[Newmania is still banned]
Broadly agreed. Maybe I can chuck 'Financial Compensation' into your portfolio, along with 'International Trade'.
I simply don’t understand tough sentencing for financial crimes, given that money simply doesn’t matter that much, and nearly everyone who loses out in a financial scam thoroughly deserves to do so.
Well, Madoff defrauded a lot of charities as well as the Kissinger family, to be fair. And then there's the Maxwell pensioners…
Rich-people-vanity-effort charities, though.
And yup, the Mirror Group pensioners and the Enron pensioners (at least, the ones whose schemes automatically switched from 'mostly invested in dull local power utility stock' to 'mostly invested in Enron stock') are among the few examples of people who lost out in financial scams and didn't deserve to do so.
Assuming the records haven't been shredded, wouldn't it be a good idea for the people who lost out to ask those higher up the pyramid for their money back?
I don't know if it would work, but the ensuing shitstorm would be fucking hilarious to watch, at least.