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Bernie Madoff:Billionaires :: Barack Obama:Everyone Else

By: Erick Erickson (Diary)  |  March 13th, 2009 at 10:29 AM  | 

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Welcome Andrew Sullivan readers! Remember: PETA likes pleather, not leather.

I am sitting in a Dean & Deluca enjoying a café au lait (hey, I’m from Louisiana, deal with it) looking out at the scrolling news sign at NBC News. The headline that just scrolled past read “Bernie Madoff Spends First Night in Jail.”

We have a guy who ran a ponzi scheme that stole billions of dollars from people to fund God knows what. Granted the American people elected him President, but compare what Barack Obama is doing to what Bernie Madoff did and I fail to see a substantial difference beyond Obama having a “mandate” from voters and Madoff not having one.

Both Madoff and Obama have put people out of work. Both Madoff and Obama have destroyed the financial health of lots of people. Both Madoff’s and Obama’s schemes have convoluted accounting schemes designed to obfuscate the criminal mismanagement of other people’s money.

The difference is that Madoff did it to powerful billionaires who are now millionaires. Obama did it to the rest of us.

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COMMENTS

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  • USNJIMRET

    about how the Government really goes after people like Madoff, because of infringement on the governments territory?
    Only the government can ‘legally’ rip you off.

  • The_Gadfly

    to steal billions from other citizens, I would still say that is different from HAVING a mandate from voters to steal trillions from other citizens.

    My problems with the Madoff things are:

    1) They let him stay in his house where he tried to send even more of his money to family. Maybe, maybe some of the elected Republicans could have stayed out of the clink if they had done something similar, but everybody else who posts here would have gone right in the clink. And chances are even the elected Republicans would demand to be locked up, just for self-protection from the howling mobs that would otherwise surround their domiciles looking to lynch them.

    2) He, his family, and the close friends to whom he gave his ill-gotten booty are not likely to wind up paupers. All of them should have all of their assets sold to make restitution to the people he swindled, and then have irrevocable liens placed against their future employment until such time as full restitution has been made. I figure they should be able to live off maybe twice minimum wage, and if they qualified for EIC at that level, the EIC money should go to the restitution fund as well. I don’t think jail time really affects the imagination of his type, but I’m pretty sure the thought of having to live the rest of their lives in poverty will.

    One minor quibble, it wasn’t just billionaires. He took a few charities with them as well. And while I can hold the CFOs of those charities in the same contempt I hold Madoff, I can’t quite do that to the charities themselves.

  • USNJIMRET

    The regulatory system, weakened tho it was, missed every red flag possible.
    The SEC was TOLD, years ago, that this scheme was a fraud, and did nothing.
    The fact that a Government agency, no matter how “independent” it’s supposed to be, failed in so epic a fashion should have some personal accountability for those who just plain did not do their fraking jobs!
    And, No, to the best of my knowledge I didn’t lose a penny in this whole mess. Other then what the scandal did to the overall ‘confidence’ in the regulatory system, and it’s impact on the markets.
    In THAT regard, everyone who watched their investments plummet got screwed by Madoff, even if “only” a little bit.
    Perhaps the SEC, or FDIC, or some other alphabet coded Federal Agency should talk to the CIA about rendition of folks like Madoff??
    There are some countries who would get ALL the information from him in a week!

  • HMHaanpaa

    losses, maximize your gains. My guess is he knew he was going to have huge legal bills so he spent the money on asset protection instead of courtroom delay tactics. Or is that strategy?

  • The_Rebel

    Call me cold-hearted, but I don’t feel sorry for most of the people who invested directly with Madoff. They were either greedy or stupid, or both. Greedy in the sense that they wanted the best return on their money that most people couldn’t get. Stupid in the sense that you should never give all or most of your money to a single individual to invest on your behalf.

    As for many Americans who got mortgages over the past 3-4 years, they were greedy in the sense that they bought homes that they knew they couldn’t afford, but with the aid of a compliant government, made the purchases anyway by overstating income and underreporting debt. And you also had the house flippers, in it just for the greed. Finally, we have the stupid Americans, those who wanted change. And change they are getting in allowing Obama to push his own ponzi scheme by taking billions, no, trillions, from hard working people to fund hundreds of thousands of government jobs which will add nothing to the gross national product.

    Change we can believe in has become change we would rather do without.

  • Alberta
  • AnotherTosaVoter

    The current economy is the culmination of events and policies that began years ago. The stimulus has not even taken effect yet.

    And somehow this is all Obama’s fault?