Picture of Bernard Madoff, courtesy of AP
All the old clichés come to life, don’t they?
Like this one should be plastered on billboards everywhere:
It seems like Bernard Madoff, has perpetrated the biggest fraud of them all. To the tune of 50 billion dollars. All those dollars, $500,000,000: vanished into thin air. He used the old, old trick of using new investment funds to pay so called high ‘returns’ to the older investors. A swindle called a “Ponzi”.
How can someone, anyone, justify such enormous returns on their investments without asking questions like how and why and wherefore?
And no, I’m not gloating over the newly impoverished socialites and wealthy who trustingly invested in such a Ponzi scheme. If I had the money, it could’ve been me.
Maude knows, I’ve been approached a countless number of times by MLMs – of which Amway is one of the leaders - and pyramid schemes (invest $100 and $1,000 will be yours in 30 days!) but my logical brain always tells me someone is paying down the long line of suckers investing in such a scheme and not getting anything in return. Like those chain letters of old, which promised 100 tea towels or 100 pairs of underwear or whatever. Someone always pays and pays dearly for such short-sighted investment strategies. Someone who can least afford it.
I always wonder how people came up with these ideas in the first place. I guess it's just a lot easier to scam than it is to do it "the old-fashioned" way.
ReplyDeleteIt amazes me that he was stupid enough that he believed that his scheme would go on endlessly and that he never would get caught. A lot of greed and wishful thinking, I guess. An incomplete criminal mind. I hope his punishment is severe, but the people who trusted him are very silly indeed also. There's no such thing as free money.
ReplyDeleteRC:
ReplyDeleteHaving known some of them in my time they think like gamblers in that there will be a day when all their ships will come in and all debts will be paid. Magical thinking.
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Irene:
ReplyDeleteall gamblers like him, I suspect or just unthinking greedy folks like him, blinkers on, no questions asked.
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Hi WWW
ReplyDeleteMost people make the rather daft mistake of believing that if they can't understand what someone is telling them, it's because they aren't smart enough. Probably best not to hand money to someone who tells you something you don't understand. If they aren't smart enough to make themselves understood, they aren't smart enough to invest your money sensibly.
xxx
Pants
Pants:
ReplyDeleteWhat excellent advice - in all aspects of living come to think of it!
XO
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