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Just ordered the book "crisis and Leviathan" by robert higgs. the basic theme of the book is that with each crisis the govt grows. depression, swine flu, 911, healthcare etc. now unlike the truthers, shape shifters and birchers, i don't believe that govt creates these crises. to throw a bone out to the conspiracy crowd though, these crises create powerful incentives. i just believe that on a planet populated by 6 billion individuals, hit shappens! when it hits the fan, there are serious implications for our civil liberties.
so what would happen if everytime some crisis came about, the dept involved would get less money and power. take 9-11. what would have happened if the intellegence community had its budget cut as a result of the failings of 911? what if the sec had its budget cut after madoff? what if the tsa had its budget cut after the christmas day fiasco? etc
Uh... then you'd have have fifty more Madoffs rising up to take his place, able to brazenly conduct their frauds without any real fear of being taken down by the neutered SEC.
Uh... then you'd have have fifty more Madoffs rising up to take his place, able to brazenly conduct their frauds without any real fear of being taken down by the neutered SEC.
really? so you believe then that investors would continue to invest in blind faith like they did with madoff, comforted in the knowledge that the sec was looking out for them? do you not think that perhaps they'd do a bit more homework first? do you not think that perhaps these people might be encouraged to spread their nest eggs around a bit more instead of placing it all in one basket?
do you not think that perhaps they'd do a bit more homework first?
"Homework" wouldn't have much meaning in a financial market with no real regulation or oversight. Things that appear legitimate could be scams anyway.
The rational response would be to pull money out of the American securities/financial market and invest it somewhere with a more reliable legal structure.
having worked in with hedge funds i can safely say that they didn't. many investors withdrew their funds and most of them were much more thorough in their due diligence. before madoff, many investors believed, some to their detriment, that a govt bureaucracy like the sec, guaranteed them immunity from criminal behaviour like madoff. why else would intelligent investors like these abandon every semblance of common sense and place all their eggs in one basket without doing their homework? in the wake of the fiasco, investors now know that they cannot rely on regulators to police the financial system, they have to approach the market with a bit of 'caveat emptor'
common sense dictates that if the reward is high, that often entails higher risk. if something is risky you better do your homework. from the age of around two, unless you grew up on mars, kids have had the old 'don't put all your eggs in one basket' drilled into them. as far as i'm concerned, if you abandon all of these common sense approaches to your finances, you deserve what you get!
"Homework" wouldn't have much meaning in a financial market with no real regulation or oversight. Things that appear legitimate could be scams anyway.
The rational response would be to pull money out of the American securities/financial market and invest it somewhere with a more reliable legal structure.
it is no good to only go to those who invested with madoff. you have to listen to those who were pitched by madoff but chose not to invest. most of these investors will tell you that the figures presented by madoff, came apart under minor scrutiny. many of them publicly stated that it was absolutely crystal clear that something wasn't kosher.
the rational response would be to place the money where then? the uk? the fsa was as ineffective at dealing with this as the sec. europe? the eu regulators were just as invisible. it seems to me that these orgainsations are designed to catch the ants while the elephants go free. in much the same way that everyone is inconvenienced by the tsa except the richard reids and the christmas day underpants clown
Uh... then you'd have have fifty more Madoffs rising up to take his place, able to brazenly conduct their frauds without any real fear of being taken down by the neutered SEC.
he didn't seem to have any fear of the SEC the whole time he ran his scam for 20 plus years. we probably do have 50 more madoffs out there now.
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