Summary of the Article about Madoff Scandal
Lots of people have already heard about the scandal, connected to the activities of Bernard Madoff. So many papers present numerous articles, where the writers are eager to share their points of views about the situation and present more new captivating facts. The article from Economist attracts my attention because of several reasons. First of all, it is mentioned that “there are no heroes in the Madoff story; only villains and suckers” (The Economist).
The point is that Mr. Madoff admits that his fraud connected with more than $50 billion looks like plausible. However, the victims of this very fraud cannot agree to this truth. Among these victims, there are such celebrities as Steven Spielberg and Carl Shapiro.
The creators of the article Con of the Century focus on several warnings for the future situation within the economical sphere. First of all, Mr. Madoff confessed that his pyramid according to which clients’ incomes were considerably increased by means of new investments, this is why his fraud has several positive results.
Of course, it does not make Mr. Madoff a hero, and underlines that frauds may rule the world one more time. People do not to pay attention to the mistakes, made by dangerous fraudsters, if these mistakes are paid. Money may control lots of situations, and the scandal with Mr. Madoff serves as a good example.
Even if many firms, which had some kind of connection with Madoff’s affairs, are sick and tired to brace themselves with numerous court trials, they still have some kind of income and do not worry about their future. This is why this article under consideration helps to comprehend that victims, heroes, and bad people are not inherent to Madoff’s scandal; and demonstrate one more time that frauds cannot be forgotten.
Person Opinion as for the Madoff’s Scandal
The first point that attracts my attention is that it were Madoff’s children, who blamed their father in all those numerous frauds, which lead to 150 years of prison. To my mind, such a serious attitude to money and the desire to get as much as possible should not be inherent to the members of one and the same family. We live in the 21st century, and intrigues connected to family money were the peculiarity of the beginning of the 20th century.
I read that “Bernard L. Madoff has been a major figure in the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD), the major self-regulatory organization for U. S. broker dealers firms” (Schwartz et al., 187) This is why I was a bit surprised that such a responsible person may cause such unpleasant and dangerous financial difficulty for so many people.
To my mind, the case of Madoff should symbolize a kind of end of the era, where people could earn easy money. This case is a turning point in the history of American finance system that has to be evaluated in order to make the same mistake in future (MacDonald & Hughes, 268).
And, telling the truth, 150 years of imprisoning is not the best way out. A person has already stolen so much money, so that it is necessary to order him to use this money to help those people, who cannot get money for living. There are so many people, who need money in order to pay for operations, those people, who ask some money for eating, etc.
This is why it is better to think how to use the already done fraud to help other people. In this case, people start being afraid of frauds and start thinking that all their money may be lost in several minutes. Maybe, such decision helps to prevent frauds and other unpleasant changes.
Works Cited
“Con of the Century.” The Economist. 18 Nov. 2008. 14 July. 2009 <https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2008/12/18/con-of-the-century>.
MacDonald. Scott and Hughes, Jane. Separating Fools from Their Money: A History of American Financial Scandals. Transaction Publishers, 2009.
Schwartz, Robert, A., Byrne, John, A., and Colaninno, Antoinette. Coping with Institutional Order Flow. Springer, 2005.