Bernie Madoff Court Appearance Tomorrow

Beg your pardon for being away from the blog -- pressure of some document preparation with a Friday deadline.

I just want to take note that Bernie Madoff will appear in court tomorrow, reportedly to plead guilty to eleven counts of various frauds.

My opinion since the beginning of this scandal is that he should have been remanded to custody immediately. His lingering under house arrest in the opulent penthouse apartment has mocked his victims and demonstrated how unseriously and inconsistently our system treats white collar crime.

In New York a fellow of a different color or different profession than Madoff would see the inside of Rikers Island if he were charged for the theft of my wallet. Madoff stood accused of a $50 billion fraud initially, now apparently upgraded to over $60 billion. For perspective, consider that the initial insured loss in the 9/11 attacks was determined to be $11 billion.

Welcome " Water Investor", who wants to waterboard Thain

Thanks for swinging by and leaving comments.

The Water Investor wants to waterboard John Thain.

The aesthetics of John Thain redecorating his quarters and angling for a bonus at a time of economic distress are questionable, but the ethics are not if this was a matter of private contracts, mutual agreement, no coercion, and no deception.

And we are not yet at the point of waterboarding people for aesthetic reasons.

Perspective. 9/11 insured loss estimate was $40.2 billion

That is according to 2002 estimates from the Insurance Information Institute.

This puts the Bernie Madoff fraud into some perspective. Note I don't say "alleged" after our touchy-touchy American media fashion -- old Bernie has admitted it, and put a $50 billion number on it. While it is not clear there was ever really that much money there, that is the working number we have.

Whatever the number, it's a big one, of the order of the insured financial loss from the 9/11 attacks.

So what's up with the way our system seems to take the Madoff very lightly, while we went to war over 9/11? Why is this guy not down at Guantanamo getting waterboarded, instead of watching his life unfold on the big screen while he sits at home under house arrest?

I also have to wonder how much dollar value one of New York's minority citizens would have to steal from a corner store uptown from the Madoffs to be remanded to Riker's Island. It's probably less than $1 billion.

What do you think?