Bernie Mad(en)off was sentenced to 150 years in prison for floating a ponzi scheme that allowed him to live a lavish lifestyle for years. A lot of people lost most of what they had invested, some lost everything. The strange thing is that some people actually of people made money.
The people who lost everything were the ones who left the money invested and like many people just forgot about it. They technically did not lose anything until they tried to get it all out and then Bernie’s plan unraveled. The people who made money collected the payouts and invested in other arenas. Eventually some received more in payments than they had invested originally, seeming like a 100% return on their money.
The payouts were made not with a good return on investment, but were paid out from the funds new investors made. If the economic market had not collapsed due to bad practices of financial institutions (which the government insisted they make so the unworthy could buy houses they could never pay for), no one would have been any wiser until Mad(en)off died.
Bernie stole a $13 billion, but his sentence should not have been 150 years. Twelve years would have been enough and would have been more in line with other financial rip-off convictions.
Hmmmm…. Maybe we should sentence all of our lawmakers in congress to 125 years in prison. They are the ones running the ponzi scheme called Social Security that never pays you back even close to what you invested. In fact, if one took just the money withheld from your paycheck for Social Security and just placed it in a 3% savings account, you would wind up with millions to retire on.
Got something to say?