The sentencing of Bernard Madoff to 150 years in prison and confiscation of his wealth deserves a thought. Madoff's financial empire was a pyramid scheme. However there is nothing special or unique about it. In fact the entire financial system was turned into a giant global pyramid scheme. (This has been proved in the first article on this blog: ”The Largest Heist in History".) What Madoff was doing was not practically different from the way the entire global financial system was operated.
From Madoff’s case perspective, thousands, if not tens of thousands, of financiers, basically a huge number of "who-is-who" of the financial world who were authorising and overlooking lending with loan to deposit ratio above 100%, should be jailed like Madoff (and their wealth should be confiscated too). Lending with loan to deposit ratio above 100% was the mechanism that turned the financial system into a giant, global, pyramid scheme, i.e. it was a global equivalent of the Madoff business modus operandi.
Similarly regulators and politicians responsible for overseeing the financial markets must be treated in the same way as Madoff. All that the District Judge Denny Chin said about Madoff apply also, literally, to the entire financial establishment.
However the financial and political establishments feel comfortable. They are "saving the world" now. Why can "poor" Madoff not get away with a simple and relatively small (compared to the financial system) case of pyramid scheme, whilst individuals that engineered, operated and overlooked a massive global pyramid scheme walk free with little prospect of being brought to book? Maybe, in this context, it is not completely incidental that whilst bankers, regulators and politicians have been presiding over the financial pyramid scheme that has been defrauding "the little people", Madoff applied the same financial practices to "the rich and powerful".
(Subsequently on 7 July 2009, Dr Vincent Cable MP published in The Daily Mail an article "Thinking of turning to crime? Become a fat-cat fraudster and the law will leave you alone". It is strongly recommended.)
From Madoff’s case perspective, thousands, if not tens of thousands, of financiers, basically a huge number of "who-is-who" of the financial world who were authorising and overlooking lending with loan to deposit ratio above 100%, should be jailed like Madoff (and their wealth should be confiscated too). Lending with loan to deposit ratio above 100% was the mechanism that turned the financial system into a giant, global, pyramid scheme, i.e. it was a global equivalent of the Madoff business modus operandi.
Similarly regulators and politicians responsible for overseeing the financial markets must be treated in the same way as Madoff. All that the District Judge Denny Chin said about Madoff apply also, literally, to the entire financial establishment.
However the financial and political establishments feel comfortable. They are "saving the world" now. Why can "poor" Madoff not get away with a simple and relatively small (compared to the financial system) case of pyramid scheme, whilst individuals that engineered, operated and overlooked a massive global pyramid scheme walk free with little prospect of being brought to book? Maybe, in this context, it is not completely incidental that whilst bankers, regulators and politicians have been presiding over the financial pyramid scheme that has been defrauding "the little people", Madoff applied the same financial practices to "the rich and powerful".
(Subsequently on 7 July 2009, Dr Vincent Cable MP published in The Daily Mail an article "Thinking of turning to crime? Become a fat-cat fraudster and the law will leave you alone". It is strongly recommended.)
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