$50 billion fraud

[Wii]

[url=http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20081212/bs_nm/us_madoff_arrest]"NEW YORK (Reuters)

[a1]

The economy is in the dump. I can't stand to hear anymore money related problems.

[tcco94]

I read this..
Thats just a joke im getting really worried for the economy and im only 14 :-/

[freedomhays]

Amazing.  You would think one with a mind enough to come up with that could make legal money.

[Steve M]

The economy is in the dump. I can't stand to hear anymore money related problems.

We have all known that this mess was greed from day one and it's very dissapointing to keep hearing story after story unfold. But if there is to be a silver lining to this dark cloud, I think it's watching these crooks go from the top to the bottom.  

50 billion dollar crime
5 million dollar fine
Wow, I just made it ryhme
Bernie "Madeoff" with everyones loot
And now he's getting a size 9 boot                    ;D

[Brett_Henderson]

Welll.. in the spirit of, "The Emperor has no Clothes"..

The whole stock market IS a Ponzi game. The whole thing is based on the theory that someone else will pay you more than you paid, for the stocks you buy. So long as there is new blood coming into the system, that works. But as soon as new investors stop showing up, it all falls apart. The same old guys can't make any money trading amongst themselves

[Mushroom_Farmer]

[quote]Welll.. in the spirit of, "The Emperor has no Clothes"..

The whole stock market IS a Ponzi game. The whole thing is based on the theory that someone else will pay you more than you paid, for the stocks you buy. So long as there is new blood coming into the system, that works. But as soon as new investors stop showing up, it all falls apart. The same old guys can't make any money trading amongst themselves

[Steve M]

[quote]Welll.. in the spirit of, "The Emperor has no Clothes"..

The whole stock market IS a Ponzi game. The whole thing is based on the theory that someone else will pay you more than you paid, for the stocks you buy. So long as there is new blood coming into the system, that works. But as soon as new investors stop showing up, it all falls apart. The same old guys can't make any money trading amongst themselves

[H]

I thought monetary systems around the world are based on gold standards.

Gold was decreed the prefered standard substance of value; diamonds, copper... reindeer dung, or such, could have been chosen. Technically, it's a refined version of the barter system: when you make a purchase you are saying, "I prefer what you have more than the amount of gold the pieces of paper you want for it represents."
To think, if you could just get the rest of the world to accept it as the prefered standard; you'd need only strap a container to your butt because most of the whole world would want your $hit.

8-)

[aussiewannabe]

[quote]Just remeber this fact: If you as a small investor can get your hands on a stock.. it means that someone else (usually inside) was willing to part with it

[Brett_Henderson]

My father used to drive stock brokers nuts

[Brett_Henderson]

@ Wombat

[quote]I had a young guy at work ask me how billions of dollars can just dissapear. Some one must have it somewhere. Now I can answer him I think. Should I say is it actually didn't exsist? I thought monetary systems around the world are based on gold standards.

[Wii]

I thought monetary systems around the world are based on gold standards.

Noooooooooooooooo. Hardly a single country out there has their money backed by a full amount of gold. The gold standard in america was gotten rid of yeeaarrrs ago; hence one of the reasons why the US dollar's value has dropped so much. Some countries have the gold, but don't back the money, some countries back a small portion of the money with gold (I can't confirm this, but I heard it.)

[Mushroom_Farmer]

The United States went off the gold standard in 1933. This made the dollar too strong and caused inflation. In the years after, when the price of gold rose, the value of the dollar fell. In late 1973 the United States decoupled the value of the dollar from gold altogether.