Once you are DEAD, do you really care what is in top of you? If that's the case get one of these to lay on top pf the dirt
They should round up 25 homeless people on Christmas Eve for a catered meal with hookers, fine cigars and port in Bernies 64th St. penthouse, and make him and his wife eat in a shelter!
Those among us that have a clue NEVER trusted Wall St. The trick was to play the game until the clueless figured out they were being fleeced. They did it in 2000, and did it again in 2008. Now, there's not much of a game left , unless you like picking at a carcass.
With the internet becoming so advanced, there is no longer such a thing as a "private life". We are all becoming very transparent- no separation of work life and personal life. I completely agree, we only have one good name. I'm glad we're headed in this direction... hopefully, it will keep people honest and "out" the scammers quicker.
Not really. Maybe for your personal portfolio but not for an institution. It can get pretty complex when you are aggregating over lots of portfolios and instruments, have quickly changing exposures, use multpile risk factors that may or may not have predictable correlations, and have derivative eposures. I had a job doing it for a while.
Is this what you want as an epitaph?? This scourge is now infamous for all eternity. And he was a supporter for the democratic party, who greased the skids for him. So much for the level playing field. Republicans no better, but you get my point. Madoff collapse closes second-largest foundation in Florida Listen to this article or download audio By KATHLEEN CHAPMAN Palm Beach Post Staff Writer Saturday, December 20, 2008 PALM BEACH â The Picower Foundation, one of the largest philanthropic organizations in the nation and a major contributor to a host of local causes, has announced that its assets once totaling nearly $1 billion were wiped out in the alleged investment scheme run by Bernard Madoff. Barbara Picower, who started the foundation in 1989 with her investor husband, Jeffry Picower, on Friday e-mailed the many charities she supported to tell them she has no money left to give. Bernard Madoff scandal The veteran Wall Street money manager, a part-time Palm Beacher, is accused of duping a long list of investors in a huge Ponzi scheme. The foundation, which was based in Palm Beach, will stop writing grants immediately and will soon shut down. The Picower Foundation appears to be the largest group to date ruined by an alleged Ponzi scheme that went on for decades and may total $50 billion in losses. It was one of the wealthiest foundations in Florida and the 71st largest in the nation, according to the Council on Foundations. The money was invested with Madoff, Barbara Picower said in a statement, and his "act of fraud has had a devastating impact on tens of thousands of lives as well as numerous philanthropic foundations and nonprofit organizations." Many Palm Beach County leaders said they are stunned by the magnitude of the loss. Scott Badesch, who heads the United Way of Palm Beach County, said the closure "will impact every one of us." Picower started programs in the county "that were very, very good. ... And it's all lost," Badesch said. "The devastation is that they were programs that were always aimed at the most vulnerable and low-income children." Mary O'Connor, president and CEO of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Palm Beach County, said that when Picower's e-mail popped up on her screen just after 6 p.m. Friday, she "just sat there" in total disbelief. "I don't even know what to say. I'm so distressed by what happened," O'Connor said. Picower contributed to the Palm Beach County School District, the South Florida Science Museum, Planned Parenthood and the Children's Services Council, among others. At the Kravis Center in West Palm Beach, the foundation built the Picower Foundation Arts Education Center, with studios, art laboratories, classrooms and a 4,500-square-foot rehearsal space. Jeffry Picower appears to have made a fortune in a 2004 deal struck by Cardinal Health to acquire Alaris Medical Systems for $1.6 billion. Barbara Picower didn't put out news releases to announce those gifts and didn't get involved in the Palm Beach social scene, Badesch said. But she did immerse herself in the programs she supported - doing the research, asking hard questions and proposing new ideas. More than a decade ago, Picower asked about a new program the Boys & Girls Clubs provided for elementary school children in the Glades. Parents who worked in the fields or an hour east on the coast were forced to drop off their children at the schools before dawn so that they could go to work. "Many of the kids were just waiting in the dark until someone - usually a janitor - would come to open the doors," O'Connor said. In cooperation with the school district, the Boys & Girls Clubs started a program that would give the children exercise to wake them up and extra instruction to get them ready for school. When Barbara Picower first expressed interest in the program, O'Connor hadn't heard of the foundation and didn't know who she was. She soon found out. Picower became one of the biggest contributors and helped the program expand to nearly every elementary school in the Glades and then to the coast. She was enormously helpful and involved, O'Connor said. "She was out there researching things, and calling you to ask, 'Have you thought of this? Do you think you might try that?''" The University of Florida studied the program, O'Connor said, and found "that the turnaround in how these kids were performing academically was unbelievable. It was the first time they were ready for school. It was the first time they could raise their hands and answer the question." The Boys & Girls Clubs have enough money to extend the before-school program through the end of the school year. After that, O'Connor said, "I just don't know what will happen." Badesch said the United Way may need to step in to help organizations that will suddenly have their money cut off. Every year, Picower gathered Badesch and other community leaders to ask what programs would benefit Palm Beach County charities. The Picowers were always modest, unpretentious and wholeheartedly devoted to the causes they supported, Badesch said. He bumped into Barbara and Jeffry Picower around Palm Beach County, including Muvico matinees at CityPlace in West Palm Beach, but never at society events. O'Connor said she tried to get Barbara Picower to attend public functions, but she always declined. The programs themselves were her passion, O'Connor said. Nationally, Picower supported the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the New York Public Library and the Jewish Outreach Institute. One of the largest gifts, $50 million, went to the Picower Institute for Learning and Memory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Tana Ebbole, CEO of the Children's Services Council of Palm Beach County, had four projects paid for in part by Picower, including a program that sends nurses to the homes of mothers and a group that helps improve the quality of after-school programs. Picower often asked why things weren't working as they should, Ebbole said. Children's Services will find a way to replace the money, Ebbole said, but "I can't imagine, to the foundation and particularly to Barbara, who worked so hard - what this must be like." The list of alleged Madoff victims is hard to fathom, Ebbole said: "It's amazing that someone would play with anyone's money - but in particular money from foundations that are giving to charitable groups. That is what is astonishing." Madoff allegedly recruited many of his victims at the Palm Beach Country Club, and many local residents sustained losses that will hurt dozens of charities in the county. Sydelle F. Meyer of Palm Beach, who ran a local foundation she started with husband Arthur I. Meyer, said this month that her money was also with Madoff. That, too, was a blow to the Boys & Girls Clubs, which benefited from the Meyers' gifts, O'Connor said. "You just keep wondering - how many others?" The New York Times contributed to this story
The money was invested with Madoff, Barbara Picower said in a statement, and his "act of fraud..." I hate was this dirtbag did to the charities and individuals he affected. But come on people... Putting 100% of what you had under the management of one entity and without an independant trustee!!! These trustees have to take some responsibility for the negligence they have showed. Madoff and his helpers are responsible for what has happened, but so are people like Barbara Picower who has a good heart but was way too trusting. Having $ doesn't make you intelligent.
Here's the rub. He had the license. The industry spent hundreds of millions dollars thru the years telling people 'trust us'. We know what we're doing. Then, when the excrement hits the wind oscillator, 'Oh. They should have known better'. NO, NO, NO!!!!!! You get licensed, you go every two years and take bullshit courses......... you will see heads of these major firms telling people to 'shut up, and do what you're told." NO, NO, NO. It's Madoff's fault,a nd it's the industry's fault. Step up. And yes, your point is well taken. Because now, the Industry will get nothing!!!!! Nothing at all. They have, or at least are about to, drive the public away for a long, long time. When I take my car to the Texaco guy, I don't have the mechanic's manual with me. I expect him to do the job. All this woman wanted to do was good. Do I wish she split it up? Sure. I don't know if you've ever been to the area where the workers dropped their kids off, but it's the bane of the Democratic party. Madoff was a big contributor, and the Dems have to step up on this.
Murdoff is allowed to happen because our government is to busy fighting wars and chasing after cheap oil they. Our government is still lookin for a guy in a cave. Ironic how the guy in the cave ruined the economy and now the NEW MONEY we need to get this market going again is going right back to the sidelines after murdoff incident. Who would trust investing in a hedge fund after this crap.. lol i think murdoff and osama are boyz but thats just me