bernie madoff - wtf were these people thinking?!

**akula** · 07-01-2009 07:05 AM

soo..bernie got 150 years. freaking monster, hope he gets gang raped in prison

BUT, and i don't mean to sound rude, indifferent, crass or insensitive, what the HELL is wrong with all these thousands of highly sophisticated, wealthy people, charities, foundations and other investors who lost billions with this sociopath?

the most basic rule of money management is diversification, and here we have some of society's elite, staking ALL their wealth on one shot with Bernard L. Madoff Securities LLC or associated funds..

can anybody be more stupid? clearly...these people are NOT idiots so what's going on?

thx

Don't End Up Like a Madoff Victim

Simple diversification would have prevented any of Madoff’s victims from losing everything. The basics of personal finance—markets; stocks, mutual funds and exchange-traded funds; bonds and interest rates; asset allocation and diversification; the relationship between risk and reward—are not all that complicated. Why isn’t such a course offered, at least as an elective, at every high school in America?

**PsiPro** · 07-01-2009 08:53 AM

Consistent 10% returns are attractive and hard to pass up.

**akula** · 07-01-2009 10:00 AM

awful stuff....and it continues to happen to all the time
people bet everything on one shot..whether it's starting a business or investing in real estate
what's your worst "bet the ranch" story?

**PsiPro** · 07-01-2009 10:38 AM

I bet most of my money on going to school. God it was miserable. But that $50k/year i made my first year out sure feels good.

**akula** · 07-01-2009 11:41 AM

yeah school sucks
down with homework

)

it's incredible though..i'm reading over the madoff case and it's like some sort a horrid fairytale; the facts are just balls to the wall unbelievable!

for one thing, the relevant fund hadn't actually made a real trade for like 14 years..and yet the SEC failed to find any evidence of bernie's impropriety when they investigated the asshole on 5(!) different occasions in 1999, 2000, 2004, 2005, and 2006

does anyone else think this is obscene?

**HomeBizCEO** · 07-01-2009 04:58 PM

Some people may have inherited their money or maybe had things handed to them their whole lives. When you've never had to work hard for anything, it's easy to let someone else handle it for you.

**Bugman** · 07-01-2009 06:36 PM

How do you know that they didn't outperform the market once Bernie's confiscated funds are split up and paid out? It could turn out to have been a great investment. How much money could he have really made completely disappear?

**Will** · 07-01-2009 08:05 PM

People risked it all in one basket due to greed, and nothing else.

**Cole Taylor** · 07-01-2009 09:21 PM

Originally Posted by akula

...BUT, and i don't mean to sound rude, indifferent, crass or insensitive, what the HELL is wrong with all these thousands of highly sophisticated, wealthy people, charities, foundations and other investors[/URL] who lost billions with this sociopath?

the most basic rule of money management is diversification, and here we have some of society's elite, staking ALL their wealth on one shot with Bernard L. Madoff Securities LLC or associated funds..

can anybody be more stupid? clearly...these people are NOT idiots so what's going on?

Rational people dont always make rational decisions. There are three components to an investment sale (non institutional): urgency, credibility, and greed. Madoff was obviouslly a good salesman and knew this.

I've personally never been involved in a ponzi scheme, but know many that have and it's actually a pretty easy sale. The proof is there, the returns are being paid...what more do you need to know?

**akula** · 07-02-2009 02:56 AM

Originally Posted by Cole Taylor

Rational people dont always make rational decisions. There are three components to an investment sale (non institutional): urgency, credibility, and greed. Madoff was obviouslly a good salesman and knew this.

I've personally never been involved in a ponzi scheme, but know many that have and it's actually a pretty easy sale. The proof is there, the returns are being paid...what more do you need to know?

so true..
anyone would be hard pressed to pass up a madoff offer
...you have like 20 years of consistently high returns together with above board reputation and credibility

it's like..you can borrow cash at 7% and put it to work with bernie for a seemingly guaranteed 10%...in the same way that all your friends have been doing for years..

...that's an easy 30k miminum annual profit on a paltry 1m loan
deal of a lifetime indeed
i can realistically see myself scrambling to borrow every cent i could

**akula** · 07-02-2009 04:18 AM

was just looking at the site..
Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC
..it might just go down as the most brilliantly disguised bit of bullshit in human history...well, religion aside and so on

this one's also good..it's madoff's sales brochure...and to a large extent, he didn't actually market the funds him self..it was companies like Fairfield Greenwich and Nomura Bank who marketed the ponzi scheme...and received large commissions when they brought in clients

overall..i think it's pretty scandalous that only bernie's in lock up...there was a lot of people in this conspiracy who've yet to see the inside of a court room

**lilg1989@gmail.com** · 07-02-2009 05:15 AM

Very hard pass uyp that type of offer

**akula** · 07-02-2009 07:54 AM

i think this whole thing just goes to show that there's plenty of people in business who are sociopaths bent on separating others from their money

i've met more than a couple of these types...some of them are my friends...and in my experience they're not evil people...but simply fallible individuals who've grown to embrace capitalism's reward structures, which unfortunately tend to encourage unethical behaviour..

meh..go figure

**Bugman** · 07-02-2009 08:35 AM

I think the charge of putting all their eggs in one basket doesn't really fit. They were in funds, not stocks. Investing in a mutual fund is not generally recognized as putting all of one's eggs into a single basket.

**akula** · 07-02-2009 09:34 PM

Originally Posted by Bugman

I think the charge of putting all their eggs in one basket doesn't really fit. They were in funds, not stocks. Investing in a mutual fund is not generally recognized as putting all of one's eggs into a single basket.

that's so true
the point didn't occur to me offhand

...having looked into it more, i have no doubt that the victims thought they were holding well diversified positions