Yes, Where's Theirs?
The bailout ethos metastasizes. We're closer to the beginning of this madness than the end.
posted by The Cunning Realist at Saturday, December 20, 2008
AN OASIS IN A WORLD OF HACKS, HUSTLERS, AND HIRED SPIN
posted by The Cunning Realist at Saturday, December 20, 2008
13 Comments:
"Ambrosino, who invested in Madoff's firm some three decades ago, knows that others are in the same position."
And they claim that they had $1.6 million invested with Madoff, but the real question is how much she gave him three decades ago to invest and has she been giving him more money since then?
Conceivably, she could have given him only $50,000 as a lump sum in 1979 and been told all these years that it has been accruing the unrealistic gains... so is she really due $1.6 million, or just the one-time cost of $50K?
Yep, she should be forced to "hand over" any money she made off Madoff's scam.
Sort of like people who unknowingly buy stolen goods, they don't get to keep that car, watch or TV.
ALOHA !!
This is a story about "PROMISES" ... Without the "promises" probably very few would have invested into the stock market or would have ever known Bernie! What these "insurance promises" have done is boost Wall Street and US Bank credibility on the backs of the US TAXPAYERS and created a much larger RISK CASINO than would have been possible without these "government backed" promises to pay! This greased the rails for BIG CEO BONUSES!! It has allowed the US Stock Markets to become the monetary spigot. I even here SIPC adds on the radio talking about how it "protects" you from losses. Well, as usual it has nothing to do with WALL STREET, as the protection will really come from the US TAXPAYERS! I personally did not vote for the US BANK BAILOUT of $700bil. I was prepared to watch them all collapse and I for sure am not interested in a BAILOUT of early retirees caught in the middle of a 20 year RV tour of the US and Canada! Sell CRAZY next door we're all filled up here!
When you add to the mix a corrupt monetary system that punishes savers while combining ever rising cost of living(monetary inflation)it forces more people to consider gambling in the markets and leaving their hard earned savings in the hands of the Bernie's of the World. Make no mistake they are all BERNIES, they just have yet to be caught!!!
This is the glory of the WELFARE/WARFARE STATE!!
It's a BAILOUT NATION combined with RINGLING BROS and CAESAR'S PALACE!!!
IT'S THE MONEY STUPID!!!
Hard to tell for sure, but based on the timeline in the story, she had to have started with a modest sum so many years ago... which she believed compounded into a small fortune.
The sad news for this couple: that small fortune didn't exist, and adding insult to injury, since it appears she's been "living off" said fortune, net/net, she may be one of these poor souls that did not experience much in the way of actual loss (the small fortune only existed in her mind), and/or she may have recouped amounts in excess of what she was technically entitled.
Regardless, I don't see how investors in a hedge fund think they should get SIPC.
ALOHA !!
Let me summarize some of the US government's largest PROMISES handed out on the backs of the US TAXPAYERS:
-Federal Deposit Insurance Corp
-Securities Investors Protection Corp
-Pension Benefit Guarantee Corp
-Social Security
-Medicare
If you take the unfunded liability of just Social Security and Medicare then according to US FED Governor, Richard Fischer, we are already up to $99.2tril USD. Now we are seeing the other two PROMISES, the FDIC and SIPC, exceeding their capacities as viable entities or as they say in financial statements, "GOING CONCERNS"!
What is ultimately at stake here is the US Sovereign Credit Rating. Currently with S&P it is at AAA and Moody's is Aaa. These ratings essentially underpin the largest BUBBLE of all time which is the US DEBT market. Just like AAA ratings under pinned the SUBPRIME markets. When it comes to US government PROMISES, that one is written on every piece of paper in your wallet ... "the faith and credit" of the US government, meaning the US TAXPAYER. Any time you hear or read US government you have to think instantly US TAXPAYER since the US government has no income without US TAXPAYERS participating in the "voluntary income tax system"! Of course, try NOT paying your taxes and see just how voluntary it really is! NOT VERY!!
Now the US FED is expanding its Balance Sheet by offering F BONDS. Sadly without the ability to sell DEBT this monetary system is insolvent. PERIOD!
Our MONEY makes the BERNIE PONZI SCHEME look like ROMPER ROOM!
OBAMA(FDR, Jr)is promising to increase US DEBT by building out infrastructure in an effort to create jobs. But is that sustainable? Is BUYING jobs a long term industry? What do you call it when government creates money to build bridges and roads? It is called PUBLIC WORKS here in America. The Union inspired legislation of DAVIS BACON, makes it Union Welfare. How else could an electrician make over $100,000 a year? Google "IBEW" ...
Without PROMISES the USA would be full of SAVERS and not GAMBLERS and the BERNIES and the HANKS of this World would be a lot less rich! Then again we would not have needed TARP either ...
The offering of PROMISES by government has created the financial chaos we now are facing. Without these PROMISES the two party aristocracy political system we have is DOA(Dead On Arrival). I KNOW IT ... YOU KNOW IT ... AND THE AMERICAN PEOPLE KNOW IT!!! This is not new and we have flirted with disaster in the past and in fact in the past the US Dollar has defaulted against gold twice before, once in 1933(FDR) and then in 1971(Nixon). I call this the "RULE OF 38"! The common denominator is every 38 years we have a currency default. If you add 38 years to 1933 you get 1971. What do you get if you add 38 to 1971?
This next currency default there is NOTHING backing the US Dollar but "faith and credit"! We are on the brink of losing both ... hence the BUBBLE in the BOND market.
Many here will be asking, "So ... who cares about the US Sovereign Credit Rating?" Well, as we have seen credit rating agencies are not the most reliable and honest entities on this Earth, but once a credit rating is lowered on the SOVEREIGN level then all companies operating in that country will not be able to have a credit rating higher than the SOVEREIGN CREDIT RATING. That means Microsoft and DELL lose their ratings also, which makes it that much more expensive for the USA and US corporations to raise money via DEBT markets.
The AMERICAN DREAM is 100% DEBT based ... Who here has ever bought a house without a mortgage?
It all boils down to one four letter word beginning with "F" ... FIAT!
That one word defines the basis of the entire global fortunes. It is HIGH RISK!
What every Western and Eastern government knows is that when PROMISES to the masses are broken there is rioting in the streets. AT that point the only cure is either CIVIL WAR or WORLD WAR ... That is what WARS are good for! If you do not believe me then try looking at history.
There is a good book on this subject, written back in 1947 by a guy named LUDWIG VON MISES, entitled "PLANNED CHAOS". Yes, historically it has always been PLANNED! It is no different now.
GOVERNMENT IS ONLY AS HONEST AS ITS MONEY!
Holy Smokes!
Is it wrong for me to think, that every time Madoff took money from one person and paid it out to another, without any investment, that it was an illegal act, thus "The Ponzie Scheme". And being illegal, that every person that received those illegal funds is also responsible.
We arrest drug dealers, and also the drug users.
These people, allowed the corrupt Madoff to exist, and they were content as long as they got high returns. Were those returns realistic in this environment? Was it too good to be true? And what did they do about it? Isn't it amazing how people care once it affects them. I only say this, because most Americans have been dealing with this "financial environment" for the past 25 years, and no one cared. So much money from hard working Americans has gone to the financial industry, and what do we have to show for it?
Bernie Madoff told everyone he was operating a Ponzi scheme but no one knows that for sure. Many of his investors never touched principal or interest so he wasn't necessarily paying cash to the oldest investors with money from the newest investors.
Maybe C. R. could find out more about the only non-family employee involved on the investment side who has been publicly identified to date.
Frank Dipascali worked for for Bernie for more than twenty years. and is a licensed broker. He lives with his wife, Joanne, in Bridgewater NJ but is originally from Howard Beach (A fact I think might be signficant.
Joanne appears to work for JPMorgan Chase's mortgage division in Iselin NJ. Frank sold worthless investments and his wife wrote worthless mortgages. Nice people, huh?
Pascali has hired Michael Mukasey's son, Marc, to defend him.
A lot of people had to have known Bernie wasn't trading $20 billion a month. He supposedly converted his equity holdings to cash and cash equivalents at the end of a period to avoid SEC reporting requirements and always made money.
The SEC should have independently confirmed Bernie's cash position at the end of 12/31/05 as a matter of routine.
Bernie isn't the lone gunman of Wall Street. There had to be collusion and the question is not if other financial institutions were involved but which ones.
I would be happy to reimburse the Ambrosinos in full. I have had my life savings sequestered in treasury bills for years knowing full well that I would some day be called upon to help the disadvantaged. Living in Phoenix I can probably drive over to Surprise tomorrow morning with a satchel full of cash as a partial payment. Alternatively, I hear there is a large church in downtown Phoenix that promised to make sure no parishoners will lose their homes or default on debt. Maybe the Ambrosinos could be grandfathered in as new members. The kindness of altruistic, responsible, thrifty strangers has no bounds.
Cry me a river.
Some people can only dream of having $500,000 ever. Easy come, easy go. I feel more sorry for the Circuit City employee who lost a job than for Madoff investors. Enough with welfare for the rich already.
Madoff may be responsible for more snow jobs than Mother Nature. All these bailouts make me sick, and I think people are crazy to expect theirs at this point. The bigger issue, however, is what are "we" going to do to prevent more swindles or snow jobs. I say it's time to make an example of the Madoffs of the world to discourage future bad behavior. How 'bout an old fashioned tar and feathering on primetime TV?
The AMERICAN DREAM is 100% DEBT based ... Who here has ever bought a house without a mortgage?
ohhh...ohhh.ohhhh. I have. Twice. I currently own 3 houses. But I now have mortgages on all 3. I try to keep about 40 percent equity in all three and the money taken out I put into gold and silver bullion. Which I have hidden in various locations...I do all of this for the sole purpose of protecting myself from Lawyers, Government, the American public, my ex-wife (never doing that again), and ex-girlfriends (Do you have a court order for a paternity test? I didn't think so)
I suppose one and all ought to read this.
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