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SwindlingAndSelling 1 - 04 Mar 2010 - Main.AerinMiller
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> | Naturally in reading through through Leff's Swindling and Selling the first thing I thought of is the master swindler himself Bernie Madoff. Vanity Fair did a series of interesting articles on the debacle, one of which can be read here and which presents, in no uncertain terms, a portrait of a "powerful conman." VF and most other major publications have devoted many inches to figuring out why a man would possibly build himself up such a perilous card tower (and how the SEC failed to catch on). I am more concerned, at least in the context of our class, with how he pulled the swindle off for so long. Leff suggests that a "device" is critical to public schemes, absent the benefit of covert action (and the implicit trust of the mark that the covert operations will result in the promised returns). Ponzi's (the actual Ponzi) device was currency coupons, which didn't work. Bernie (our Ponzi) used -- his reputation? The trust of his community? From a paragraph in the VF article:
"I would hear my friends in Aspen, Colorado, the affluent resort town where I live, gloat about the kindly Jewish uncle, the financial genius, who didn’t just keep their money safe but paid dividends, while everyone else’s portfolio plummeted by 40 percent. “Bernie’s gone to cash,” one said. “Bernie’s in Treasury bills,” said another. “Thank God for Bernie!” said a third."
I understand how once the con started, and trust grew, and celebrities and heiresses got involved, everyone wanted to invest with the 'financial genius' but that still doesn't explain how it started, what his genius device was. Hopefully today's class will shed a little light.
-- AerinMiller - 04 Mar 2010 |
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