After Your Done With Madoff, Punch Yourself

[Steve Stuck]

Couple of days ago I was getting a workout in at my local gym. I took a break from my workout to look up at the TV. It was on a news broadcast showing the now famous Bernie Madoff being surrounded by press as he was getting into a vehicle. What made me smile was that before he got into his vehicle, some guy comes out of nowhere and pushes him/tries to attack him. Probably someone who lost a bunch of money with this guy. I do understand how these people feel, investments can belly up at anytime and that is the risk with investing. Overall, I don't feel sorry for these people that lost their money. This also shows where society is and how selective they are in being pissed off.

The Madoff scam was a classic ponzi scheme and there was many warning signs in this whole process. First, most people were told that the minimum return on their investments would be 10%. That is unheard of in investing and should make your skeptic side speak up. No matter how long a firm has been in business, some investor telling you that they can get you 10% on investments no matter what is impossible. Good investors will tell you that a good return can be around 4%-5%.

What Madoff did was get credible people to invest with him, thus creating a credibility network for many to rely on for reference. When I invest, I do rely on peoples opinions that are professional investors and/or people who invest. I also do massive amounts of homework on investments. Then the final process is letting my gut have a say in somethings. Basic instinct on feelings usually help out after I have done my research. In December of 2007 after researching for a few months I dumped a lot of stocks to make a profit. This is because I started researching our coming financial storm in July of 2007.

More signs of this ponzi scheme were quoted by many people. One couple said they thought maybe something was not right when they only invested $700 bucks with him many years ago and Madoff turned that money into $1 Million dollars. You think? While many lost money with this guy, many cashed out early and made money. While the growth they made was not true appreciation, they still had skepticism.

The selective actions of those on this case also what amazes me. To the guy who pushed Madoff, be pissed at him but also at yourself. You didn't do your homework and didn't rely on decades of investment research. The Press and Media writers are now throwing around the phrase "Ponzi Scheme". Wow, their intellectual ability in reporting amazes me everyday. $50 Billion dollars is a lot of money, but at the sametime they do not factor in that we have a $13 Trillion economy and it is nothing on the large scheme of things. Why don't they surround politicians like they have Madoff concerning the ponzi scheme called Social Security that hurts paychecks of millions of workers each payday?

Wait, that would be questioning government and as we all know, they have our best interests when it comes to investing money (wink).

[Steve Stuck]

Scary to think that this was someone there to cover the news but instigated the pushing.

You challenged me last week with sources to make my writings more credible in your mind. So now I challenge you to tell me how I am wrong on Social Security.

[Chris Flener]

You had me nodding in agreement...especially when you launched your broadside attack on SS :-). If it was a cameraman, we need more of them to beat this guy up, lol.

[Chris Flener]

My solution isn't necessarily to invest SS in the stock markets. Yes, 401Ks and IRAs have taken a hit, but those are choices individuals are making on their own. My objection is with the system or ideology as a whole. Why should I pay for someone else's retirement? I don't expect anyone to pay for mine, I'm taking care of that on my own.

If you really want to get a feel for who really wants SS and who doesn't, make it an optional program. Those who want to pay in and reap the benefits (if there are any) when they retire, can do so. Those who don't want those benefits are retirement don't have to pay in... You will quickly see that the overwhelming amount of $ put into the program is by those who have no interest in the program at all, and feel it is a joke or unfair.

Why does the government force a program that is not wanted by an overwhelming number of people who fund the program (note: # who fund the program, not # who use the funds from the program!!!)?