By Martin Sage
A Bernie Madoff book or guide would have gone a long way toward preventing the greatest fraud of all time, don't you agree? Bernie is arguably the most successful white collar criminal in history, but what if someone had written a book... a Bernie Madoff book let's say that would have clued us all in to the kind of scheming fraud he was? Would you have read it before investing with him? It's a little late now but I'm betting you would have read it if such a book existed.
I can tell you that just such a book did exist... sort of. You see long before there was a Bernie Madoff scandal, long before the current eruption of ponzi investment schemes littering the newspapers today, long before the present TARP bailout... there was the S&L crisis of the late 1980s. You see wherever there is money (particularly lots of it), there is fraud (also lots of it). It really is a stunning case of deja vu when you think about it. Here we are twenty some odd years since the 1987 stock market crash going through the identical stock market gyrations, bank implosions, and tax-payer funded bailouts.
You would think we'd have learned by now but apparently we haven't. Around that time in the mid-eighties, a young man and future author was just getting his feet in the door in the world of investment banking and in particular, bond trading. Those very same assets regarded as toxic today had very closely related cousins which were being traded in the 1980s, and many young men were eager to make as much money as possible doing whatever they had to do to make Savings & Loans bank managers buy (and sell) them. Our future author was of no particular distinction when he became a bond trader, and frankly didn't have any sort of pedigree to be in that position - and yet there he was, making a six-figure salary convincing S&L managers and other wealthy clients buy and sell investment bonds.
You should already be able to tell what the problem has been with the system, and why fraudulent schemes persist. Young men (and some women... but let's face it... it's predominantly men) are paid vast sums of money to get you and I to make as many investment transactions as possible whether it is in our best interest or not. It was true in 1987 and it is true today. Every time a transaction occurs a little crumb falls off of the investment wealth of you and I and falls into the pocket of someone else in the form of a commission.
You would think someone out among the young traders and investment professionals would have enough of a conscience to inform the public about the mechanisms of the investment world and the frauds they perpetuate. You would like to believe that same someone would write a book... a Bernie Madoff book to keep us from making the same mistakes we made in 1987. As I stated in my opening, someone did write a Bernie Madoff book... of sorts. Someone did have enough conscience to tell all (and thus ruin his bond trading career). The name of the Bernie Madoff book circa 1987 was Liar's Poker. The man of conscience was Michael Lewis. Perhaps Michael will write another tale describing this scam. Perhaps next time we'll pay attention.
Martin Sage | Pick up a copy of Liar's Poker here today Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Martin_Sage |
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