Bernard Madoff

Since news first hit about the Master of Madness Madman Madoff there have been 65 new reference added to Madoff's wikipedia entry . We are seriously considering changing our tagline from "And the Madness of Crowds" to simply "And the Crowds are really, really Mad!!!!!" Frank Lautenberg, The Wilpons, the Khruschevs the Kennedys. Well versed in etiquette. Extraordinarily nice. Guaranteeed to blow your...fortune? To avoid complications he always kept the same address. 17th floor. . Bar those windows. Suicide alert. Moo-ve over.

 

Read Full Description at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernard_L._Madoff

Ponzi Scheme

A Ponzi scheme is a fraudulent investment operation that involves paying abnormally high returns to investors out of the money paid in by subsequent investors, rather than from the profit from any real business. It is named after Charles Ponzi. A Ponzi scheme has similarities with a pyramid scheme though the two types of fraud are different.

Read more at:

Wikipedia - Ponzi Scheme

New York Times - "A look back at Charles Ponzi the Schemer"

Congressional Oversight Panel: Meet Harvard Professor Elizabeth Warren

Ballbuster extraordinaire?

Video: http://www.cop.senate.gov/

Report: http://cop.senate.gov/documents/cop-121008-report.pdf

Nominal Interest Rates: Less Than Zero?

By Daniel L. Thornton

January 1999

Can nominal interest rates be less than zero? Many people would argue not, reasoning that no one would invest $100 today with a promise of receiving only, say, $99 in one year, given the alternative of simply holding the $100 in cash. Yet, rates on short-term Japanese government bills recently were negative, and several foreign-owned banks in Japan have paid negative nominalinterest rates on yen deposits.

Read Full Article at: http://research.stlouisfed.org/publications/mt/19990101/cover.pdf

Quote of the day!

"Only two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe."
-Albert Einstein (1879 - 1955) http://www.gaia.com/quotes/Albert_Einstein

Other Notable Quotes:

"Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world."
-Archimedes

"Wall Street: the fulcrum that far exceeded Archimedes wildest expectation."
-Stickman

"You can't solve a problem with the same kind of thinking that created it."
-Albert Einstein (1879 - 1955)

"A man I do not trust could not get money from me on all the bonds in Christendom."
-J.P. Morgan

"Why did I rob banks? Because I enjoyed it. I loved it. I was more alive when I was inside a bank, robbing it, than at any other time in my life. I enjoyed everything about it so much that one or two weeks later I'd be out looking for the next job. But to me the money was the chips, that's all."
- Willie Sutton (in his own words)

Cash Trashing -- Defacing Currency as Self-Expression

By Cary McNeal

November 11, 2008

There are more means of personal expression these days than at any other time in history, but whether you choose blogs, message boards, graffiti, tattoos or even traditional artistic mediums, it's always more fun if there's an element of danger. One of the most cost-effective forms of dangerous personal expression -- that's just as illegal as graffiti -- is currency defacing.

In a world where a $10,000,000 bill exists, it's clear money is worth less than the paper it's printed on. This makes the canvas ripe for use as a personal billboard. And if you get things wrong, you can always just spend it (as long as your artistic project hasn't destroyed it).

Read Full Article at: http://www.asylum.com/2008/11/11/defacing-currency-as-a-means-of-self-expression/?icid=200100397x1213791539x1200875782