If you do not know his crimes then he looks so 'normal' and almost resembles George Washington - the first president of US. But once you know his crimes then he is a monster who destroyed thousands of lives through sheer greed, including the life of his own family. At least two of his victims have committed suicide because of economic helplessness.
Human greed can be the Weapon of Mass Destruction - like Bush going after Iraqi oilfields using all kinds of masks which are coming unravelled as time goes by. This weapon of mass destruction - the greed - could be very deadly as Bush succeeded in causing the death of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis with millions displaced and millions others living in squalor. Madoff has succeeded to destroy thousands of lives.
Now the financial and economic mess we are facing today can be traced back to the same weapon of mass destruction – Greed.
He reminds me of a character in the novel Crime and Punishment by Dostoevsky where a murderer makes a lot of money by killing an old rich woman and usurping her wealth but then feels that his life is worthless and finally his feelings of misery lead him to hand himself over to the authorities. Madoff must have lived a miserable life despite all the luxuries, as he wasted no time to admit his crimes when confronted by the judge. Maybe he is protecting some partners in crime as well.
Madoff, a Jew himself, even swindled some holocaust survival fund and as Jon Stewart put it, even Hitler would have said "com'n Bernie."
Letterman - Jon Stewart's Economic Crisis
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sb2j4RTCgng&feature=channel -
Hmmm ...
ReplyDeleteThis is big and the fact that Morgan Chase may be involved is interesting to say the least.
Gene, thanks for the links.
ReplyDeleteIt is indeed a huge scam. Surely more will be revealed as time goes by.
..greed by Madoff, and, perhaps, greed by his "victims"?
ReplyDeleteWhile I'm a conservative, big and small "c", I take some solace that the people he hurt most were, in fact, ardent capitalists.
Think about THAT for a moment - the people who lost the most, were the people that had the most.
I guarantee you he didn't swindle any homeless people over the pop-bottle booty.. I'm quite certain he didn't finagle the last $50.00 from some single mother on welfare.
Inherent in the concept of capitalism is "risk". You pays your money and you takes your chances.. and the bigger the return, the more likely that you're getting screwed. C'est la vie, n'est ce pas?
We're learning some hard lessons from our parents and their parents - you don't risk more on a gamble than you can afford to lose. Period.
You save some money for a rainy day. You pay your house off. You don't over-extend yourself.
Souds like boring stuff, doesn't it..? not so boring to Bernie's friends.
I am not conservative small "c" or capital "C" but I agree with you. It was greed all around and Madoff did go after millionaires/billionaires. I suppose his philosophy is that if you want to swindle then swindle big time. Interesting - may be he is Robin Hood in that sense; however, he did not give it to poor.
ReplyDeleteBernie is having a hard time being couped up in his cell. The food is terrible.
ReplyDeleteHis lawyers are trying to get him released until the actual sentencing date.
Makes me wonder if atheists are more moral than people with religion.
I think we need several Robin Hoods.
But then, if he gave the money to help the poor, the government or investors would get it back somehow.
Why is there GREED?