Cul-de-Sac Sociale

Economic Assessment

That Madoff guy. What a total blowhard. Worse than Nicodemus the evil tax collector. I read an article on CNN this weekend about the angry investors that chewed out the SEC at some overdue SEC hearing, and basically, I cant decide what's more pathetic. Madoff - or the investors' complete lack of apathy for the notion of sending Madoff to prison due to thier utterly self-motivated greed and concern over regaining thier investments back from the SEC. I mean, when you've lost $200 million or $1 billion of your net worth/net wealth - does getting back $1 million from the government really make a difference? It's like watching a herd of greedy little fat kids fight over the last peice of cake while the guy that ate all the cake in the first place is watching them from luxury box seats! If I were the fat kid, I would piss on the cake and throw it at the luxury box seats and the guy and his family in it - but that's just me. These fuckin investors! They're so consumed by greed and wealth to even acknowledge any want for justice. Idiots.

The problem with people like Madoff is that their crimes are so intelligent, and they're often viewed as such harmless people, that they eventually become rewarded for thier crimes in the end.

Frank Abagnale Jr. was con-artist who posed as a Pan-Am pilot, committed $2.8 million worth of fraud and corporate theft, and ended up doing 4 years time in prison to eventually become promoted to a cheif fraud specialist for the FBI. Apparently it was so forgivable that Tom Hanks decided to produce a movie about it called "Catch Me If You Can." Then, there was that famous 19 year old hacker (so famous his name escapes me at the moment) sometime back in 2000 or 2001 who hacked into classified goverment servers and "stole" some unfathomable amount of secure files. After some few months in a minimum security prison, he was eventually invited to join the FBI as an internet security fraud specialist. The thing is, I guess I can forgive the Pan-Am pilot because he successfully conned a mega-corporation during the 1950's. And I can forgive the hacker kid because by the time he screwed the govt, the govt was already screwing the people.

But I can't forgive this Madoff guy. By conning his own peeps, he single-handedly screwed the American Ecnonomy. Fuckin Madoff, it would be great if he was condemmed to live in a studio apartment in the Brooklyn Marcy Projects, or in a foreclosed rambler on Crenshaw Avenue. But no, he'll probably just get 4 months in a luxury prison, 2 months of house arrest, and a lucrative job offer as an investment fraud specialist at the SEC. And then Tom Hanks can make another movie.

posted by Westcoaster @ 9:12 PM