How much sympathy do the Madoff victims deserve?

A fool and his money shall soon part!

Is it expecting too much for SEC regulators to be competent? Isn't this like trusting the FDA to protect our food supply with responsible investigation of food and drugs? Will anyone be held accountable? Or will some low level clerk take the fall? $50B is more than is needed to save GM, Chrysler and Ford! Perhaps Congress will bail-out the rich investors, like they did for the Wall Street financial institutions.

They were greedy, like the crook was greedy.

Another systemic failure of our regulatory agencies . . . BOTH the Fed and the SEC have BLATANTLY FAILED to perform their fiduciary duties to provide "oversight and adequate regulation of the FIs and the markets. This is nothing less than the elitists corporate special interests having been given the license to do whatever they wanted to do without any consideration of ehtics or sound accounting and/or business principles. This is a TOTAL BREAKDOWN of ouor regulatory systems. They literally looked the other way for TEN YEARS . . . a lot of heads should roll for this one. And worst of all Congress failed to implement reasonable and prudent oversight and management via these agencies. Barnie Frank, Mel Martinez, Ms Pelosi, Mr. Reid, Mr. Dodd, and all of the other Congressmen who VEHEMENTLY FOUGHT AGAINST and VOTED AGAINST implementing oversight and regulation of the FIs, the corporations, and the markets SHOULD BE REMOVED FROM OFFICE ASAP. These economic debacles are a DIRECT RESULT of either INCOMPETENCE or corruption . . and look at what this has cost our nation.

Why would the investors in Madoff's fund deserve or warrant any more sympathy or help than is being provided to all of those who have lost substantial monies in their 401K or other investments?

The exposure of the excessive fraud by Madoff's funds, which were blatantly overlooked by the SEC for OVER TEN YEARS, inspite of numerous wqrnings and charges to the SEC, is a good example of how either INCOMPETENT or CORRUPT our government (Congress) and our regulatory agencies have been for well over a decade.

If the American people don't "rise up" and demand the remove of the Congressmen and administrators of these agencies, then they deserve what is going on.

As the French philosopher Rousseau stated: "People have the government that they deserve . . ." If you "tolerate" it, then you "deserve it". If we do not "clean up" the RNC, the DNC, and Congress, then what do we expect in the future.

This incident with Madoff, a former Chairman of the NASDAQ, simply shows how corrupted and INCOMPETENT our government, our regulatory agencies, and our business enterprises have become.

It also demonstrates how "common sense" can be so lacking in so many supposedly educated, savvy, and wealthy business people. (Everyone always thinks that these things will not happen to them.) There can be no INTEGRITY in government and business without a certain amount of "basic oversight and regulation" . . . . it is surprising that Greenspan didn't have investments in Madoff's funds (Ha!); he didn't believe in "regulation" either.

Isn't all of this truly similar to the fable about "The King's Clothes" . . . . all of the people pretended to see the clothes until the little child shouted out that "the kings doesn't ahve any clothes on"

It is amazing how apt this old fable is to what has occurred in our business world, the stock markets, and these funds. Everyonoe . . . the brightest and wealthiest people . . . pretended to not see what "common sense" easily disclosed.

I wonder how many of those who tried to address these matters were ridiculed or criticised for their attempts. Being able to say "I told you so" always have a hallow feeling of disappointment. Once aggain, people seem to NEVER LEARN the lessons in these matters. Isn't that why and how this current economic debacles have occured . . . we all certainly "knew better" than to let all of this happen, didn't we.

Oh yes . . . the other fable is: ". . . and all of the King's men and horses could never put Humpty Dumpty together again . . . "

And Congress, and the regulatory agencies just do not seem to be able to orchestrate an effecitve recovery effort.

Sorry, folks, there is a Federal Agency that does function and will insure their money. They'll be fine. When you are that rich, you will be too.

Hey, no-one bailed out the shareholders of Washington Mutual when the FDIC ransacked it and gave the assets to J.P. Morgan. They told the shareholders, "you get nothing". We should have gotten swap shares of J.P. Morgan at the value WAMU closed at the last day. Our government proved that they are just as vial as Communist Russia was when they did that! And we are supposed to trust the largest casino in the country, "WALL STREET"? Sorry that all those rich people are crying that they want to be re-imbursed. Well, so do many others. We might not be "the real people" like Spielberg, and those guys in sports. But we lost our money too with people we trusted. So, bite the bullet and make a movie about "Bernie's Scam".

WELL, THANK GOODNESS THEY STILL HAVE EQUITY IN THEIR HOMES..........WHAT ?...

I'm really beginning to resent the way this scam has been portrayed over the media. It has prompted comments from people who simply don't understand that not all the investors in Madoff were get-rich-quick greed mongers, nor big financiers. Many, and I mean MANY of us were old time investors, whose families began an association with this crook many years ago. In my family's case, over 40 years ago. In that time, the returns were steady, but not obscenely lucrative. The SEC is supposed to be a watchdog of operations such as Madoff's, but they were lulled into thinking that he had honor and integrity, due to his history as the head of NASDAQ. I am not a big time investor. I had a few hundred thousand invested with Madoff, but it was all I had in the world. Please don't make the mistake of believing that most of us victims were the Wilpons or Zuckermans of the world. It just ain't so.

GREED IS A WONDERFUL THING... IT WIPES OUT THE GREEDY...AHHHHHH

GUESS THERE ARE GOING TO BE SOME BARGARNS ON HOUSES IN MANHATTEN AND PALM BEACH

Its funny to see all these professional investors/managers talking about the lack of losses and returns of 10-15% being a red flag. I don't think I have ever seen any admission of mortality from these jackels before. These are the same geniuses that heralded the new .com economy where the funamentals didn't matter and were silent during the housing bubble where repackaging consumer debt was a brillant way to make money out of thin air. Its these folks who have always railed against regulation or oversight as government meddling and an impediment to growth. When they market their funds by trumpeting their losses as loudly as their profits, then I will take them seriously.

" I had a few hundred thousand invested with Madoff, but it was all I had in the world." Poor Rick only "a few hundred thousand".. This breaks my heart. Is he flat broke now? I hope so.

There are real victims of this fraudulant scheme that have been barely mentioned in international national news. LOCAL newspapers speak of the REAL victims whose present and future lives have been greatly and sadly impacted by Madoff's greed and manipulation. Thousands of local trade union members lost their pension, retirement fund and health insurance benefits due to this. Let's not forget about the charities that have lost their funding. These are the REAL victims. I don't feel as sorry for the multimillionaires who lost invested money. I am sure they have money invested through other means. They can always sell off their multi-million dollar assets if they are desperate for some pocket change.

Am I supposed to feel sorry for these people? Everyone has lost 40% this year and no one cries for us. At least these people had some money at one time. I am almost happy that these suckers lost their money. After all a lot of them thought Madoff was making money by front running other investors.

Reminds me of the old saw:

"You can't con an honest man."

People are right to be appalled, angry, all the rest of it. But no one put that big fish hook in their mouths but themselves. Madoff just tossed the line in the water.