Madoff and Obama: Fellow Ponzi Schemers

First, let me make it clear that I despise Bernard Madoff and wanted to see him fry.  Still, I must confess that when I first heard that they were sending this elderly rat to jail for a hundred years, it struck me as absurd.  But if it’s true that the good die young, I suppose it’s just possible that Madoff might walk out of prison a free man in 2109.  

On the other hand, I kept asking myself why anyone would invest with this schmuck.  When I was a kid, I used to watch a TV show called “Racket Squad.”  Every week they would dramatize a different con game.  (Obviously, while young Burt was just sitting home watching, young Bernie was busily taking notes.)  As varied as the cons were, the moral was always the same.  As the show’s narrator, Reed Hadley, patiently pointed out week after week, if something sounds too good to be true, turn around and run, don’t walk. (more…)