Now that we have all had a few weeks (and lots of holiday food) to digest the Bernie Madoff scandal, here are a few of my observations.? Firstly, I can not for the life of me understand how such?human beings who don’t visibly manifest any remorse?roam the earth.? To think that a man can be a trusted adviser to so many and could be completely fooling everyone.? He spent more of his time working on people who he knew, penetrating his?own circle.? This takes a “special” kind of person.? Someone who hustles strangers is bad enough, but your own friends and family is despicable.? Secondly, I will always be puzzled by people who put all of their eggs in one basket.? Why invest all of your money with anyone?? Another question, why invest money in the public markets when you are just years away or currently in retirement?? Textbooks will tell you that you shouldn’t be doing this, you should almost completely exit the public markets five to seven years before?retirement.? Nonetheless, I feel awful for these people.? Regardless of bad decision making, nobody deserves to get ruined financially.? I hope that the authorities find some hidden arsenal where the money is stored away.?

This entire situation has been terribly handled by the judicial branch of our government.? I can’t believe that this man is able to still roam under house arrest.? He should be locked up in Attika and they should throw away the key.? I do believe he deserves a fair trial like anybody, but there is no doubt in my mind that he is guilty.? The thing that bewilders me the most, who else at his organization is culpable?? As was brought up to me recently by a colleague and is a very interesting point, there must be an entire back office operation that is at least aware and more likely fully participated in this scheme.? Why have we heard nothing about them?? (Except the brother in-law’s accounting firm)? These individuals deserve almost as much scrutiny and we should be sure to be investigating and bringing cases against every individual involved.? We need to be strong on this and send a message, crimes of this magnitude are serious and deserve harsh consequences.