Ponzi

Public protections against fraud hang in the balance over the upcoming SEC budget battle.

Speaking of Bernard Madoff — and who isn’t, these days? — the inevitable next chapter of this saga is the first-person tales of woe from his wealthy victims. The Daily Beast steps right up with a piece by Alexandra Penney, a New York artist, and former editor of Self magazine, which seems somehow fitting.
Did I [...]

That’s the question Yves Smith at Naked Capitalism asks about Bernie Madoff’s huge Ponzi scheme. He also raises another good point: Why didn’t Madoff make a run for it?

Forget credit default swaps, mortgage-backed securities and all those complicated financial instruments that are causing the economy so much trouble. Wall Street is reeling today instead from a straightforward, by-the-books, $50 billion Ponzi scheme apparently orchestrated by the once-respected investor Bernard Madoff, a former chairman of the Nasdaq Stock Exchange. There is no complex chain [...]