For a piece on Madoff in prison see:

http://nymag.com/news/crimelaw/66468/

Madoff stole $70 BILLION. For many people it was a personal tragedy. Lives have been ruined and all he can say is "F * C K MY VICTIMS." Remorse is notably absent. If ever there was anyone who seemingly deserves a life time in prison it is one Bernard L. Madoff.

How much did it cost to bail out Wall Street and European bankers again?

How many lives were ruined because of the banks' reckless lending?

Dick Fuld, the last CEO of Lehman Brothers took home half a BILLON in bonuses in the eight years it took him to ruin a bank with a history of more than 100 years.

Goldman Sachs survives only because it got special favours from the US Treasury. How much is it paying in bonuses? Remember this is the bank that helped the Greek Government fake its books.

See: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/20/jon-stewart-takes-on-gold_n_544102.html

German banks lent to the Greek Government on the basis of their fake accounts precipitating (another) global financial crisis. Do you think those guys didn't know the accounts were fake? But, what the hell, so long as we collect our bonuses before the brown stuff hits the fan. Afterward the taxpayers can pick up the pieces.

Bernard Madoff stole $70 billion.

How much did it cost to bail out the global economy? How many lives were ruined? How many people lost their homes, their jobs?

The reckless practices of the world's big banks have cost 10, 20, 30 times what Madoff stole. And that's not counting the human misery.

Compared to the havoc wrought by the world's big banks Madoff is but a petty thief. If those guys get to walk with their billions the most Madoff deserves is 200 hours of community service.

He's done his time. Let him go

We could also consider sending Hanson, Bush's last treasury secretary and architect of the bailout, to join Madoff in prison.

Do you Steve want anything you post to be taken as Worth while?
Do you truly honestly think he should go free?

Belly..wake up Australia.. of course Steven is not calling for Madoff to be released..he is using a colorful way of saying why were the OTHER crimmo's not also arrested!

The real criminals here are the politicians & law makers who fail us miserably by not changing policies. What does the law reform commission do all day. They should be locked away to protect us.

Maybe go back and imprison Ex-Presidents Carter and Clinton, it was Carters CRA legislation and the requirements by Clintons crew which imposed lending demands based on population proportional ethnic origins, instead of individual ability to repay.

As for Madoff.. may he rot in prison...

perhaps we should consider trying Krudd and Swann and Garrett for their fiscal malfeasance too

Yes we have a funny sense of justice sometimes. While Madoff should remain in custdy, the cowboy antics of the big banks have gone largely unpunished and more than that rewarded with bail outs.

The bail outs should have been passed to the bank customer rather than the perpetrators of greed.

We seem not to learn. The mechanics of the system and lack of real regulation will mean the system is ripe for plundering at some time in the future.

You only have to look at the Bank of QLD and dodgy loans for Storm Financial customers.

Dear Steven,

I'll let Mel Brooks have the last word
on this one...

"Zeit nisht messhuge. Loz em gain. Abee gezint!"
(Mel Brooks - "Blazing Saddles.")

"Zeit nisht messhuge. Loz em gain. Abee gezint!" ??
Foxy,
I don't get it, sorry !

Dear Individual,

I find that humour is the most
reliable of antidepressants.

And I tried to introduce a bit of it
here in response to Steven's question
about releasing Bernie Madoff. Afterall
the money he took was from the rich and
greedy, while the banks harmed many
people who could least afford it. Therein
lies the difference between them.

So, I took a few lines that Mel Brooks spoke
in the film, "Blazing Saddles."
In the film Mel brooks plays a Sioux chief
who encounters a family of African-American
settlers. Asked by one of his equally Semitic braves
if they should be slaughtered, Brooks incants
in Yiddish: " Zeit nisht messhuge. Loz em gain.
Abee gezint." Which means: "Don't be crazy.
Let them go. As long as we are all healthy."

I hope you get it now, if not, don't worry about
it. It's viewing the world through a certain lens.
I adore the humour of Jerry Seinfeld, Joan Rivers,
Jon Stewart, Shelley Berman, Jackie Mason, Shecky
Greene, Sid Caesar, Woody Allen and a host of others.
But not everyone does. I like the way they view an
often indifferent and callous world. And they've
frequently reduced me to a giggling mess.

The real criminals are the US Federal Reserve.They are doing a repeat performance of the Great Depression of 1932.Create lots of fiat money and get over valued property assets and shares,then restrict the money supply causing the real economy to collapse.

The parasites then go about buying up devalued assets via the crisis they have created.

WTF?

I hated the so called comedy of Mel Brooks. You could see the punch line coming from a light year away and when it got there it was never as funny as I thought it could be.

At least Gene Wilder knew when Brook’s lines were not funny – he would yell his lines out and hope for the best.

Steven’s attempt at humour rates on par

Snore- Maddoff can stay where he is- the bigger culprits would do nicely spending the rest of their lives in solitary confinement.

Is this not all a part of the freedoms of Capitalism that we all so cherish. These hearty risk taking individuals are not common criminals, after all they didn't lie on their dole form or something as serious as that, but they are entrepreneurs of the highest order. Obama should pin the Medal of Honor on their chests while we all stand to attention and sing the Star Spangled Banner with our hands on our hearts. Oh I'm going to be sick

Paul1405 asks:

"Is this not all a part of the freedoms of Capitalism that we all so cherish."

No, it isn't.

One of the ADVANTAGES of capitalism is that enterprises that cannot pay their way go bankrupt.

Let me repeat that. Bankruptcy is one of the advantages of capitalism.

It means that failed enterprises cannot poison the economy through subsidies, bailouts, or supping at the taxpayer's teat.

Capitalism is not superior to socialism because capitalist are smarter than socialists, Capitalism works where socialism fails simply because it allows economies to EVOLVE by burying failed enterprises.

In other words capitalism works because of "creative destruction". See:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creative_destruction

But if for some reason an enterprise is judged "too big too fail" (TBTF) then it needs to be regulated.

However, in fact, it was not the TBTF enterprises that were bailed out but those who were in charge. What we have seen through taxpayer funded bailouts is a transfer of funds from the needy to the greedy.

Or, to put it another way, we have seen socialism for bankers and highway robbery for the rest of us.

As for "stimulus packages" - that has been a transfer of funds from the taxpayers to crooks.

Note to Julia: You do not build an "education revolution" by building ridiculously overpriced school halls. You build it by getting good teachers, paying them well and sacking education bureaucrats.

Note to Kevin: One way of stimulating the construction industry is to burn down houses I suppose.

Steven

quote:

"Let me repeat that. Bankruptcy is one of the advantages of capitalism."

The supporters of capitalism always are sprooking the advantages of same over socialism. The problem is as it's the stooges of Big Business who write the laws to suit BB, then when BB acts criminally, as they do, and lots of the crimes of BB are within the "law", not forgetting who wrote the "law" in the first place. The rest of us are left to suffer the consequences.
As for stimulus packages, don't worry about school halls and insulation, very small beer, the biggest stimulus package of them all is WAR, bigger the war the better for BB.
The cry should be bring on WW3! well at least a few small wars, it must be time for us to go an kick the s#it out of another impoverished third world country (people) BB needs it.

Cheers Paul. ( all's rosy in the garden once again.)