Madoff a parable of greed

[SeattleUte]

Waters, I'm surprised you've missed the full import of this story.

$65 billion in 4,800 accounts. The math isn't so hard to do, even in your head. These weren't working stiffs or poor people who got swindled. $13+ million per account, on the average. Fat cats. Yes, there were some non-profits or foundations that have done a lot of good. That is too bad. But these are no doubt directed by individuals of high net worth and/or with directors and officers liability insureance who can and should and will probably be sued. The NY Time reports that Madoff acquired clients for his consulting and money management busienss at super exclusive country clubs and similar places. Lofty circles.

Why did super rich people give Madoff their money? Because he promised reliably high returns at minimal risk. For years now people have questioned his returns using his purported methods. But he said that it was all too complicated to explain, and his company's policy was that the means and methods must be kept secret for competitive reasons.

The point is super rich people, people who probably travelled in the same circles with Madoff and one another, got hurt badly by their own greed. It's an old story, isn't it. Throw in their blind willingness to believe what they want to and the story is even older and more familiar. I'll tell you what, on the list of the world's victims for me to get outraged over I doubt Madoff's victims make the top ten. Why is it that invariably it's the super rich who are the greediest, even though they are least in need of more money?

[SeattleUte]

This article perfectly expresses my view:

“These were people with a fair amount of money, and most of them sought no professional advice,” said Bruce C. Greenwald, who teaches value investing at the Graduate School of Business at Columbia University. Mr. Hedges said: “It’s like trying to do your own dentistry. It is a real lesson that people cannot abdicate personal responsibility when it comes to their personal finances.”

And that’s the point. People did abdicate responsibility — and now, rather than face that fact, many of them are blaming the government for not, in effect, saving them from themselves. Indeed, what you discover when you talk to victims is that they harbor an anger toward the S.E.C. that is as deep or deeper than the anger they feel toward Mr. Madoff. There is a powerful sense that because the agency was asleep at the switch, they have been doubly victimized. And they want the government to do something about it.

. . .

Even Mr. Wiesel thought the government should help the victims — or at least the charitable institutions among them. “The government should come and say, ‘We bailed out so many others, we can bail you out, and when you will do better, you can give us back the money,’ ” he said at the Portfolio event.

But why? What happened to the victims of Bernard Madoff is terrible. But every day in this country, people lose money due to financial fraud or negligence. Innocent investors who bought stock in Enron lost millions when that company turned out to be a fraud; nobody made them whole. Half a dozen Ponzi schemes have been discovered since Mr. Madoff was arrested in December. People lose it all because they start a company that turns out to be misguided, or because they do something that is risky, hoping to hit the jackpot. Taxpayers don’t bail them out, and they shouldn’t start now. Did the S.E.C. foul up? You bet. But that doesn’t mean the investors themselves are off the hook. Investors blaming the S.E.C. for their decision to give every last penny to Bernie Madoff is like a child blaming his mother for letting him start a fight while she wasn’t looking.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/14/bu.../14nocera.html

They're infantile, like the people who complain about economic consequences of supporting Proposition 8. Only much worse. They were simply greedy rich, and as the article says, if there's any arena where the government ought to make personal accountability a cardinal rule, it's personal finance.

People lose money on investments all the time. It's a critical element of our success as a nation. I don't think any of these victims should get one thin dime from taxpayers. Let them sue their trustees, advisors, directors, etc., if they had any.

Moreover, this is like a parable of everything. Something else Ellie Weisel said: “I remember that it was a myth that he created around him,” Mr. Wiesel said, “that everything was so special, so unique, that it had to be secret. It was like a mystical mythology that nobody could understand.” All in all, it's the oldest of stories.

Waters, what do you think of these people's demands that the government cover their losses?