Home > Jay Bookman > Archives > 2008 > December > 13 > Entry
DEL.ICIO.US$50,000,000,000 — poof, it’s gone
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A lot of the numbers being thrown about in this financial crisis are just mind-boggling. For example, $700 billion. Where exactly did all that money come from? And where exactly is it going? It’s hard to wrap your head around it.
Even that gargantuan sum is dwarfed by the $2 trillion that the Federal Reserve has handed out in emergency loans. Again, where does that kind of money come from? Apparently it’s just invented out of thin air. It exists because the Fed says it exists.
And the Fed refuses to reveal where it’s gone. Somebody’s got it, but they won’t say who.
Now there’s Bernie Madoff, the New York financier and former NASDAQ chairman who has confessed to what is allegedly a one-man, $50 billion investment fraud.
$50 billion? Excuse me, let me rephrase that:
$50 BILLION?
As in a five followed by 10 — count ‘em, 10 — zeros? I mean, your telephone number has fewer digits than that. It’s longer than your Social Security number.
“While Mr. Madoff is facing federal criminal charges, accused by federal prosecutors of operating a vast $50 billion Ponzi scheme, many of his clients are facing an abrupt reversal of fortune that is the stuff of nightmares.
“There are people who were very, very well off a few days ago who are now virtually destitute,” said Brad Friedman, a lawyer with the Milberg firm in Manhattan. “They have nothing left but their apartments or homes — which they are going to have to sell to get money to live on.”
Madoff has been running the scheme for years, probably for decades. And I suspect he’d still be running it successfully today if this economic collapse hadn’t happened along to expose him.
But $50 billion, all gone? Where does that kind of money go?
Comments
By GodHatesTrash
December 13, 2008 6:18 AM | Link to this
Time to go to work, trustfunders…
You’ll get to see some of the people you stole from on the way down down down.
By Bud Wiser
December 13, 2008 6:52 AM | Link to this
Since when has the government been concerned with financial accountability?
Trillions have been dumped, lost and burned just in Lyndon Johnson’s “Great Society” welfare state he created in the 1960’s, and what, if anything, has it shown as a return?
Seriously Jay, do you think they even care right now, or is it just a continual posturing on both sides of the aisle, trying to make the American people think they are actually doing something, when in fact once again they are just throwing money at a problem and hope that it will solve itself?
On a separate note, you have a foul mouth little monkey posting offensive language on your site that apparently is getting through your screener. Might I suggest you read posts form some tool who calls himself Chad Harris in your *Bush Kneecaps…” column at 838p yesterday.
By AJC/DNC Management
December 13, 2008 7:31 AM | Link to this
Um, uh, er, did anybody tell them about the “bailout” yet?
Just fill out the name and address on the form with your favorite Acorn character, sign the dotted line and you too can get your filthy paws on 700 Billion in genuine US-Sino currency, guaranteed to be worth, uh, something, at least until the end of next week.
By then, barry will be raining dimwit dollars from the skies, so who gives a F?
By spankmonkey
December 13, 2008 7:42 AM | Link to this
Madoff is a Republican, nuff said…
By AJC/DNC Management
December 13, 2008 7:46 AM | Link to this
I second on the nastyitis that has infested the otherwise peaceful, loving coexistence of the posters at the Bookman blog, are we allowed to follow suit?
By Chad Harris December 12, 2008 11:56 PM You were either comatose during the last eight years and you’re b* about Democrats’ ethics and drawing on it by the usual guilt by association to Blago. Your sylogism goes this way: 1) Brian Nichols killed people. 2) Jim Wooten lives in Jaw Jaw. 3) Wooten is a murderer.
Chad Harass- Um, add in there that Wooten was also found up in John Gacy’s townhome and was Dahmer’s personal chef and then you will be getting close to Oblahma’s past association with RezCo and Bill “Bomb Blast” Airs.
By AJC/DNC Management
December 13, 2008 7:51 AM | Link to this
No matter how backwards and hicked out “JawJaw” is it will never be as bad as that festering growth on it’s as-s, Fulton County-
THE BRIAN NICHOLS CASE: NO DEATH PENALTY DEADLOCKED JURY WILL MEAN LIFE FOR KILLER-Urinal
Sick.
Now these pervert liberal judges can get to work getting him a recliner and sofa, five star meal service and contact with other innocent humans that this savage would love to blow the heads off of.
By AJC/DNC Management
December 13, 2008 8:05 AM | Link to this
A Star appeared over the nightime skies of the Midwest and the Three Wisemen saw it as sign of a new saviour being born upon the world. So they gathered up the finest gifts that they could present, some resort tickets in the Caribbean, a couple of prime low interest mortgage loans and bag full of genuine US-Sino currency and they set off on their journey to thee glorious place of the birth.
Upon arriving and the manger, and much to their horror, they found the Mistress AP pregnant like thee fatted cow with her stud the Democrat National KKKommittee nervously waiting for the blessed birth, this disgusting scene being too much for the Three Wisemen who hurled and ran screaming from this horrible sight. Having dropped their gifts, they watched in fright as the usual Chicago farm animals emerged from their rathole, thee City Hall, and scurried over to scoop up the fallen treasure.
Mistress AP went into labor, horrible and gruesome spasms shook her and before too long, out popped the saviour, a sick and depraved whining little baby lie-
But Emanuel is not a target of the probe, according to people who have been briefed on the investigation.-Urinal/AP
And so onto the world went this lie, saviour of thee OBambi, upon the lips of all thee pinkkos it now sits, until thee day that it shall grow into thee Truth, after it has been said a million freakkking times.
ew
By AJC/DNC Management
December 13, 2008 8:09 AM | Link to this
“I needs to get out of thee Chicago, quickly, uh, how about this big empty crib?”
President Bush’s aides have turned down a request from President-elect Barack Obama to move from Chicago into Blair House, the official guest residence across Pennsylvania Avenue from the White House, in time for Mr. Obama’s daughters to start school in Washington on Jan. 5.-NYTimes.
Holiday Inn Suites?
By Taxpayer
December 13, 2008 8:15 AM | Link to this
No problem. The SEC did not catch him so he just kept going until one too many customer tried to pull out their money. Now, he tells the truth — there’s nothing, it’s all a lie. What are they going to do. They’ll try the 70 year old and he’ll go to jail.
The people that lost their life savings are just out of luck. Too bad, suckers. That’s how the free market works. It’s buyer beware. You have to always check things out or else you could get taken for a ride. If I sell you a promise then that’s what you’ve bought — nothing more. Who knows, maybe you’ll get lucky, maybe not. Then again, you could’ve taken that money and spent it all in Vegas — the land of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.
Besides, it’s not as though all that money went to waste. He didn’t take wads of thousand dollar bills and stuff them in a furnace. I’m sure he paid himself and all his employees quite handsomely for years and I’m just as certain that they were all taken good care of with the best that money could buy for their children’s educations and for their healthcare and retirement. Do you think this guy invested his own retirement money in his own fund. Hmmm.
Anyway, the bottom line is that there were winners and there were losers in this scam. It’s no different than what has been happening on Wall Street. What do you think a CDS is anyway. It’s a bet. And companies like AIG covered trillions of dollars worth of these bets and some people are collecting on their bets while others are not. That’s just how the free market works so suck it up.
By mike hussein smith
December 13, 2008 9:06 AM | Link to this
Jay, how can you worry about a measly $2 trillion, when the UAW is getting a whopping $15 billion bailout?
By getalife
December 13, 2008 9:18 AM | Link to this
Well, the investors can get in line for a bailout.
By Thje Corporal
December 13, 2008 9:24 AM | Link to this
Jay
I sure don’t know where that kind of money went but I know how to at least mitigate that kind of behavior.
Anyone who steals that much money should get the death penalty. I could vote for that and sleep like a baby.
Ooops! Sorry. I forgot we can’t even get twelve people (including at least one knucklehead) to give someone the death penalty for murdering five people.
If Nichols murders one more person (a fellow convict, a guard or anyone else) I hope all the jurors who failed to vote for his execution sleep well.
What a sad, sad indictment of our failing judicial system.
By Morningstar
December 13, 2008 9:29 AM | Link to this
By AJC/DNC Management December 13, 2008 8:05 AM A Star appeared over the nightime skies of the Midwest and the Three Wisemen saw it as sign of a new saviour being born upon the world
We always see three (3) Wise Men on Christmas cards, pictures, manger scenes etc., but the Bible does not say “Three Wise Men;” it just states wise men.
So how many wise men are we talking about in the 8:05AM. It really goes against the grain to see the story of Christ’s birth projected in this manner.
By Thje Corporal
December 13, 2008 9:35 AM | Link to this
Mrs. G.
Transformers @ 1:24am
By Thje Corporal
December 13, 2008 9:42 AM | Link to this
To Morningstar
Thank you for this perfect opportunity!
Time for Sunday School class:
It comes from the three gifts they broght (one symbolic of a King and the other two used in burials ……… interesting!)
Obviously, there may have been more than three and they probably had numerous attendants and even guards (rough traveling back then).
By the way, it says, “they came to the house where he was”. Translation, they did not come to the stable/manger the night he was born as the shepherds did. It was probably a year or two later.
One more thing …….. shepherds then were on the lowest end of society and of course Wise Men were at the top. Translation, Jesus came to offer eternal life to all - lowly and exalted.
The choice is yours.
By Thje Corporal
December 13, 2008 9:49 AM | Link to this
JAY
No surprise here ……… :o)
Headline:
WASHINGTON (AP) - President-elect Barack Obama is refusing to answer any questions about the internal review he has ordered into Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s alleged efforts to sell his former Senate seat, saying he will do so when the examination is finished.
Obama’s staff has declined to respond to even basic questions, like who is conducting the probe, how long it will take, what issues are being explored and whether they are working with federal investigators. Obama has promised transparency throughout his service and to divulge contacts his staff has had with Blagojevich’s office in the coming days. But his staff has locked down on inquiries in the meantime.
By getalife
December 13, 2008 10:04 AM | Link to this
I doubt Rahm will talk to the media after they showed his home address. He is pis-sed.
By mike hussein smith
December 13, 2008 10:11 AM | Link to this
What’s the world coming to? AC/DC is calling people out for nastiness. Well, if anyone knows, it is him/her.
By Thje Corporal
December 13, 2008 10:13 AM | Link to this
Po Pourri
1) I think I figured out why there are so few liberal posts on weekends.
They’re not at work stealing time from their employers.
2) To today’s AJC ventor who opined that the electoral map shows we are not a united nation, we never have been. We are at least for now a republic of united states and that is a profound difference.
3) Aytch’s honeymoon is already over and he is still at the reception.
4) The new sparking Camelot has already morphed into the same old dirty Chicago.
By mike hussein smith
December 13, 2008 10:37 AM | Link to this
Corporal, keep that gluepot away from your nose. Gallop says Obama’s approval rating has flat-lined — at 67 percent.
By Thje Corporal
December 13, 2008 11:46 AM | Link to this
To Mike “Aytch” Smith
And before all of this news broke what was the approval rating for all of Chicago’s politicians? Heck, those people keep putting them in office. They love corruption up there.
Approval rating has nothing to do (necessarily) with the amount of corruption involved (i.e., Former Federal Impeached Judge Congressman Hastings, et al).
By getalife
December 13, 2008 11:49 AM | Link to this
“I don’t know what Sen. Vitter has against GM or the United Auto Workers or the entire domestic auto industry; whatever it is, whatever he thinks we’ve done, it’s time for him to forgive us, just like Sen. Vitter has asked the citizens of Louisiana to forgive him, ” said Johnson, president of Local 2166. Otherwise, Johnson said of Vitter, it would appear, “He’d rather pay a prostitute than pay auto workers.”
Ouch.
By Thje Corporal
December 13, 2008 12:00 PM | Link to this
To getalife
*Let’s all sing together now …. *
Everyone stand up and holler for the Union
Let’s give the brotherhood a cheer,
Everyone stand up and holler for the Union
We ain’t hit a lick all year !!
By mike hussein smith
December 13, 2008 12:25 PM | Link to this
I would not give one fig for “all of Chicago’s politicians” but I do not believe in the pig-a@@ theory of guilt by association that seems to have obsessed your brain. But Obama would still get my vote if the election were tomorrow.
By Thje Corporal
December 13, 2008 12:35 PM | Link to this
To Mike “Aytch” Smith
I would not give one fig for “all of Chicago’s politicians”….
But you make my point. He was one and came up through that system.
I have accused him of nothing at this point but he bears special scrutiny and watching.
And I sure wish those wires had stayed up until the Inauguration.
By GodHatesTrash
December 13, 2008 1:23 PM | Link to this
Get, Senator David “Diapers” Vitter has it all figured out.
The more women who lose their jobs, the more will become prostitutes so they can “put food on their families”, the less he’ll have to pay to get his diapers changed.
Degrade and demean the value of work and good jobs, that’s the GOP way.
By The Corporal
December 13, 2008 1:48 PM | Link to this
To GodHatesTrash
As Maynard G. Krebs (our first hyppie liberal) used to say …..
WORK?
By Caveman
December 13, 2008 6:57 PM | Link to this
“THE BRIAN NICHOLS CASE: NO DEATH PENALTY DEADLOCKED JURY WILL MEAN LIFE FOR KILLER-Urinal
Sick.
Now these pervert liberal judges can get to work getting him a recliner and sofa, five star meal service and contact with other innocent humans that this savage would love to blow the heads off of. ” - AC/DC
Liberal Judges? You sure it wasn’t the jury that decided the verdict?