Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Madoff for Senate

I know that Bernie Madoff is a thief. He is a scammer, a schemer and deserves to go to jail. He has stolen 38+ billion dollars in a ponzi-scheme. But you have to look at the big picture. In the end this is pocket change to a Senator in Washington.

They just passed a pork filled Omni-bus bill costing us 400 billion with 10+ billion in pork barrel spending. Before this, they spent 700 billion + interest to "stimulate" the economy. Before this 700 billion to bail out the banks. In this spending was 20+ billion for foreign banks and billions more to buy toxic assets at prices over their planned maturity (expected cost 78 billion). A large quantity of wasted cash to be sure.

Maybe Madoff is too clean. Madoff took money from adults that consented to put their money at risk. Again, he is a criminal and gets what he deserves. The government takes this money by force; from us, our children and their children and then throws it away. This too should be criminal.

But that is not even close to the real cost of the ponzi-scheme. A scheme where money is invested in fake funds and trusts and then they produce false holding statements and fallacious returns. We have all seen this kind of documentation firsthand. We get them in our mailboxes directly from the Social Security Office. An account statement with "your balance"; when the money was spent years ago. Ten Trillion+ dollars, money taken from us and every employer we every worked for, has been wasted. All the while, money was spent on Congressional pay raises, pet projects, State dinners, working vacations. Sound familiar? These pages are worth the same as those accounts from Bernie Madoff.

The "outrage" that these professionals throw at a rookie like Madoff is laughable. He is getting exactly what he deserves for defrauding clients and working his schemes to his own benefit. I only wish we had the same outrage and legal outcomes when it comes to elected officials as we do with private citizens. Since Bernie's career in the private sector is over, I nominate him as the Junior senator from New York where he can learn from the best crooks in the country.

So as you listen to the members of our illustrious congress fain outrage at Madoff and corporate excess, remember this. We have a way to prosecute these crimes in the private sector. The people will go to prison for their crimes and restitution, in whatever form possible, will be granted to their victims. In public office we, at best, can remove them from office. Only to see them resurface in cabinet appointments or as lobbyists; making millions. I think it best to keep these crimes in the private sector were we have some recourse. Then we can all sit back and watch them rot in jail.

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