Blagovich sez: Thanks Madoff!

[DanS]

The list of suckers is huge and growing longer. Many blue chip banks marketed his funds in one fashion or another. Some people took out leverage on the funds, so the losses could be larger than the $50 billion quoted.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122914169719104017.html

He was turned in to the authorities by his sons.

[DanS]

An example of how these losses were magnified...

HSBC offered a leveraged fund to its clients based on Madoff's fund. Its clients put in $500 million into the leveraged fund and the leveraged fund borrowed $1 billion from HSBC -- for a total of $1.5 billion lost.

[Grandpa Troll]

Gordon Gekko

[Seeker]

"Capitalism created thieves"

When did they start trying capitalism in the US??

[MarkG]

When did they start trying capitalism in the US??

how would you call what they have in the US?

[chequita guevara]

Originally posted by Seeker
"Capitalism created thieves"

When did they start trying capitalism in the US??

1609 and they never stopped

[Dauphin]

Bring home the bacon. Woohoo!

[DanS]

One of the interesting things about this is that the evidence supporting the rationale for hedge funds was tainted. Apparently, Madoff's funds made up a little less than 1% of the total hedge fund industry. Subtracting these phantom returns from the class of assets will make a large impact.

[Boris Godunov]

Originally posted by DanS
The list of suckers is huge and growing longer.

Apparently NJ Senator Lautenberg is on the list.

[Colonâ„¢]

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/081217/madoff_scandal.html

The SEC is such a ****ing joke.

Originally posted by DanS
I'm surprised that we don't see more Ponzi schemes in the first world.

In the developing world, they can be so large as to bring down governments. Colombia just had a massive one. Thinking back through history, I can't recall any super-large ones in the US. But they must have happened.

I don't think this one will have much impact on the US market, although the size is impressive.

Maybe you don't see as much of it because developed countries usually have competent regulators that prevent such large schemes. You don't want to get compared with third-world countries...

[Jon Miller]

Yeah, how can we fix this?

JM

[DinoDoc]

Originally posted by MarkG
how would you call what they have in the US?

At this point? Socialism.

[Arrian]

This is pathetic. Way to go, SEC!

DD - more like corporatism. A sort-of socialism that is really about protecting the rich from failure.

-Arrian

[DanS]

Originally posted by Colonâ„¢
Maybe you don't see as much of it because developed countries usually have competent regulators that prevent such large schemes. You don't want to get compared with third-world countries...

Even when regulation was minimal, you didn't see Ponzi schemes of the degree you see nowadays in Venezuela, Romania, etc.

[Arrian]

[right-wing talking point]Except Social Security, of course!!!111!!![/rwtp]

-Arrian