I read in the NY Times this morning, a reporter, Diana B. Henriques, who is also writing a book about Bernie Madoff, had a front page article on Madoff in which he claims that the banks had to know about his Ponzi swindle. Ms. Henriques has had several interviews with Madoff in his North Carolina prison as well as numerous email communications with him as she researched her book.
I finally have something Bernie Madoff said that I believe: I don't think there is a shred of doubt that some of the major players, banks and hedge funds, had to be aware that something was awry when his returns on investments were so astronomical and unreal.
It's the same old story of greed and complicity. You got a good thing going: he's making money, you're making a pile handling his investments, why rock the boat. Just look the other way and let sleeping dogs lie, particularly when you are being enriched in the process.
It's not simply a cult of ammorality but a case of immorality. When you know something is wrong and you carry on regardless of that knowledge, that is willful and wrong---and that spells immorality.
Too much of this kind of thinking has become an integral part of too many lives today. It's not confined to the business world alone, although, God knows, that world has a disproportionate share of these baddies. You see it in the sports world, for example, when you know that baseball management knew---and did nothing about---the steroid scandals of the nineties and early 2000s. It has become accepted behaviour in too much of the world.
I'm not trying to be the great Moralist. Like most of us, I screw up and don't do the right thing enough. We're all imperfect, but try to remember that old saw: tell the truth, it's easier to remember! And when something stinks, don't buy it!
If true and these allegations can be proven, it could get very ugly.
ReplyDeleteI read much of that interview this morning.There's something in the woodpile we don't yet know about.
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