Bernie Madoff was a scammer, a con artist, someone who ripped off his friends and led his son to commit suicide, an operator of the biggest ponzi scheme in history, taking in hundreds of millions of dollars and, instead of investing it, spending it on yachts, houses, and donations to fancy charities who feted him for his brilliance and generosity, someone who avoided taxes and ripped off rich and poor with equal enthusiasm, and he kept all this up for thirty years before the financial crisis of 2007 revealed that his business was a house of cards. All of which is to say that he was a regular Wall Streeter who just happened to get caught, right!?!? Well, actually, mostly not, and that’s an important point that is elided in
Good article, Will, as always! For a somewhat less sanguine view of the relative rarity or frequency of financial fraud, manipulation, hucksterism, insider dealing, and general insanity in the field of finance, I find Matt Levine’s “Money stuff” to be a daily source of enlightenment and entertainment. Not on the scale of Madoff, but still…
I'm going to assign this as a reading for my Principles of Macro class next time I teach it. I go on and on about how finance is important, but you explain better than I do. (I use a dating app analogy. Wall Street matches people who have temporarily have too much money now relative to later with people who have companies they want to build but don't have the cash to do it.).
Your analogy is a good one, too, but you'd make my day by assigning this in class:). It really is amazing how little appreciation most people have for what you and I think is a fundamental economic function.
Good article, Will, as always! For a somewhat less sanguine view of the relative rarity or frequency of financial fraud, manipulation, hucksterism, insider dealing, and general insanity in the field of finance, I find Matt Levine’s “Money stuff” to be a daily source of enlightenment and entertainment. Not on the scale of Madoff, but still…
It would be interesting to know where Matt Levine saves his money.....I've been meaning to subscribe to him and now, thanks to you, I have:).
I'm going to assign this as a reading for my Principles of Macro class next time I teach it. I go on and on about how finance is important, but you explain better than I do. (I use a dating app analogy. Wall Street matches people who have temporarily have too much money now relative to later with people who have companies they want to build but don't have the cash to do it.).
Your analogy is a good one, too, but you'd make my day by assigning this in class:). It really is amazing how little appreciation most people have for what you and I think is a fundamental economic function.