I am getting a little tired of seeing people (usually in their late 50s or early 60s) going on television and saying that they lost all their money investing with Madoff. Really? They gave all their money to an uninsured fund with no decent financials to look at, based on the say-so of some friend or something? I mean, they were swindled to be sure, but it is tempting to ask if this is not just a case of "a fool and his money are soon parted." I know this will start a firestorm here, but I just felt I had to blog about it. I am reduced to platitudes. Don't put all your eggs in one basket. Don't risk what you can't afford to lose. If it's too good to be true, it probably is. I am sorry these investors lost a great deal of money, but those who lost all their savings and retirement really have to blame themselves also.
Thursday, March 12, 2009
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4 comments:
I have to say I sympathize with LTG. This is not to say Madoff should be let off. But yes, to the extent they put all their money in his fund, his victims were negligent.
What's more, one notable person was invited to invest and refused. I heard that Warren Buffet was asked to invest in the fund and refused because he had never heard of the accounting firm responsible for doing the audits. Gee, I wonder how he got so rich?
One of the bad things about Bernie pleading guilty...now he doesn't have to say where the money is. He is protecting the money and his family, nobody will ever get their money back now. As far as the investors responsibility, I disagree with you to a certain degree. Who among us has not been guilty of following the 'hot' item, fad or thing at some point in our lives. Madoff had folks like Steven Speilberg...very high profile people and I know his marketing people used that to sell investors into his system. Bernie himself, never made a stock trade in 13 years...I have to put the blame on the Bush administration and the SEC...these people are crooks of the highest order, so for me, the investors in the Madoff scam get a pass. We have all let corporate America steal from us...who is to blame for that? In that instance, as a collective, we are guilty as charged...we put up with this shit so they keep doing it to us right under our noise and we do nothing...shame on us.
I don't blame people for being conned by Madoff and investing money with him. He was a con artist after all - and so of course were the whole crew working for him who probably were in on the secret. What I am troubled by are is people who put ALL their money with this guy. I saw a guy on CNN say that he was retired (in his 50s) in Florida, but that he had to move back to NY and live with his parents now. Forget Madoff: you don't put all of your money in the stock market no matter what! You don't invest money you need to live on in the stock market. The stock market is a place to put money you can afford to lose or not see for a very long time. That's just being greedy that banks aren't paying high rates of interest.
Spoken like a true lawyer. How do you know all of Madoff's investment instruments were the stock market? They weren't! many were hybrid insurance products and insurance products have the feeling of security...you are way to quick to judge without knowing what he was asking people to invest in I think.
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