Yesterday, I was listening to Bob Brinker, and one of the news topics was Bernie Madoff's arrest for running a ponzi scheme, known as Ascot Parners LP, that is believed to have lost its investors some $50 billion. Here is a Forbes story: http://www.forbes.com/2008/12/12/madoff-ponzi-hedge-pf-ii-in_rl_1212croesus_inl. html

I have not seen any mention of how long it took Madoff (whose last name is pronounced "Made-off," as in "I made off with your money, ha, ha, ha") to collect this colossal amount of money.

We were talking about this ass hat at work friday. Been going on for years!

Started as a friend of a friend buy in thing and scaled up from there.

This is big time criminal.

This is big time criminal.

getting what he deserves.....

forced to wear a monitoring device and trapped within the walls of his cramped little apartment, subsiting on what few canned goods are on hand.

OH the brutality and injustice of the judicial system. All this over a few bucks.

He sure is lucky. some guys get shot stealing twenty bucks from a convienence store....

50 Billion gets house arrest

Oh I know. That was EXACTLY my point.

I think the guy should do some hard labor. There have got to be things we need, that can be made here. Call it in-sourcing!

Make him PAY

What Madoff did was criminal, horrible, dispicable... BUT

There is a very important life-lesson in the Madoff story.... how willing people are to turn all their money over to a "nice guy" from the club.... and how unwilling they are to learn enough about financial statements to realize that the emperor had no clothes.

I've seen 20 year charts of Madoff funds' returns... straight up for 20 years without a hiccup up or down. 12% in terrible wall street years, 12% in terrific wall street years. But almost nobody wanted to question the magic. A number of Quants looked over the results over the past 10 years, and always came to the conclusion that such results had to be fraud or pure ponzi. Some went to the SEC with their findings. Anti-regulation governments and an unfounded belief by investors that they were in on some top secret, super-successful, can't lose money investment gravy train led to what has become a financial nightmare for many. BUT the biggest losers are those who broke all the rules of investing -- putting all their financial eggs in a single Madoff held basket, never questioning their unwavering success, never looking behind the curtain to find the great and powerful Oz.

How much do YOU know about the people handling your investments and retirement savings? (Its a rhetorical question -- don't answer here)

Are you diversified? Money in more than one place, in more than one type of investment, more than one style and asset class.

Can you look at the financial statement your financial planner or full service broker sends you and explain to a 10 year old what kinds of things you own, and why you expect them to improve over time? Can you read a mutual fund report and understand what it owns, and how it invests?

We spend more time studying, talking to friends about, shopping for, and keeping up to date on our cars and our computers than we do on our savings and investments. Money is neither good nor bad -- but it is an incredibly helpful tool to build the life and lifestyle you want. And as any carpenter or cook will tell you, you should always keep your tools in great shape.

Who set bail low enough for Madoff to get out of jail. A Republican I bet.