The end of Madoff-but not the end of the story
I don’t feel sorry for Bernard Madoff at all. I assume he has exchanged his plush couch in his New York apartment for a hard cot in a jail cell somewhere in the U.S. and lies there for hours on end thinking about his life. And he has a lot to think about. In many ways, that’s the end of the man but not the end of the story. This one will make headlines, books and movies for years to come, long after Mr. Madoff has departed.
An entire town is after Madoff
A Connecticut town is suing not only him, but his family and investment companies because its pension board allegedly lost millions in Madoff’s investment scam. The lawsuit seeking $75-million was filed on Monday by the town of Fairfield and its pension board. It names members of Madoff’s family and Tremont Partners and Maxam Capital Management for failing to oversee Madoff’s investments, and the founding partners of Fairfield Greenwich Group, which lost more than $7-billion in the scheme.
We want our 7 billion dollars back – now
Madoff has left a whole slew of aged men and women to depend on Payday Loans and Cash Advances in order to make it through the month. This is not the way things are supposed to happen in the 70’s and 80’s.
No pension
Retirement without a pension is simply a disaster, and that’s what many of the victims of Madoff’s schemes are facing. It’s true that not every working man or woman has a pension and there are many countries where the whole idea of pension doesn’t exist. But we are talking about America and the Western world and we’re concerned with the well-being and dignity of the aged after they have completed their life’s work. No one can work forever, and when the time comes, it’s nice to take it easy, relax, have a little fun and do things without an eye on the paycheck.
A pension doesn’t mean you can start spending recklessly, but for the average person who worked hard and loyally for 40 or more years, just the ability to eat out or drop in at a movie house without feeling guilty is a great pleasure and a reward for all the years he or she never did those things.
The pension schemes
If you were thoughtful and careful in your working years, you saved for your pension. This differs from country to country but the principle is the same. During your working years you put money into a fund every month. That fund invested all the money it collected, earned interest on the money, added it to yours and when you finally call in your pension at age 65 or so, you receive a monthly payment which may be or not be linked to your last salary. So you could receive 70 percent or so of your last salary as your monthly pension.
In tough times
In tough times such as we are experiencing now, interest rates fall so very little or nothing is added to your money and your monthly payout is thin.
In rough times
Your fund invests the money with someone like Madoff in an attempt to get you a much higher monthly payout so you can splurge in retirement. What happens is that you lose your entire pension. But they were trying…
The lawsuit seems fair. The second parties that these poor people went through probably didn’t do the appropriate research because “the guy keeps making money,” which is not an excuse if he does it illegally, and barely an excuse for people that do, because that way lies tyranny. He better be good at making license plates or birdhouses.