This is Alpha, the first-born, when he was 2YO.
This is Beta, the second-born, when he was about 2YO.
This is Gamma, the third-born, when he was about 18MO.
Mad-On, Mad-Off
Jan
5
2009
Madoff is under investigation for $50 billion Ponzi scheme. My first thought when I heard that was “where did all the money go? How can one guy lose (or spend) $50 billion?”
Remember, the Ponzi schemes are legal, but only if you are the government. Then you can call it Social Security and people will accept it. Civilians are not allowed to setup Ponzi schemes, because the government does not like the competition.
I heard some news stories after the deal, and of course they included the standard warning about “If it is too good to be true, it probably is.”
That gave me an idea about the next big scam. Now Madoff did well because his returns were not sky-high. They were on the upper side of average, but the scam clue was that the returns were always positive and in the same range.
Some people, in hindsight, were saying that should have been the tip-off. That, and his books were not audited by an independent third party.
Anyway, the next big scam should involve some guy who gets returns right around what the market is giving. The average mutual fund return slightly below the market, so a good scam would go up and down with the market to alleviate the concerns about being too good to be true.
This has the added benefit of better gains for the scammer. Now he doesn’t have to give back so much of his take in order to appear like a good fund manager.
Of course, if his returns aren’t much different from the market’s, then it might be hard for him to attract investors. Oh well, maybe that’s why I’m not a con man.
Disclaimer: this was written to alert the good citizens of this country to possible scams, not give suggestions to devious scammers.
“Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves; so be shrewd as serpents and innocent as doves.”
– Matthew 10:16
This little article thingy was written by Some Guy sometime around 11:01 pm and has been carefully placed in the Finance category.
