Bernard Madoff pleaded guilty to all 11 charges against him. The looming question I keep hearing is – what happened with all of the money which he received from all these people, $64B? My question would be – are the American people, as a whole, about to lose out, too, even though we didn’t invest in the ponzi scheme? All those who DID invest, for years have paid taxes on interest received (which they re-invested) which they never received in the first place? IS the IRS libel to these individuals to REPAY them for taxes they paid which, ethically speaking, were not owed then or now??

Hope you guys talk about Jon Stewart’s stunning smackdown of CNBC last night. Come to think of it, perhaps a show on the state of the business media would be a good idea.

That’s a great question GerryW. I can see it now, dueling clawbacks.

The SEC should have caught this closer to its beginning. Will they be held liable?

What about the layers of middlemen/women who got commissions from this? Will those commissions be clawed back too?

I don’t think anybody is completely innocent here, including the investors who put all of their eggs in one basket because they were sold a bill of goods about it. Investors make choices about where to put their money, including the choice of a money manager who might have put the money into a Madoff fund. Greed doesn’t become diluted down the chain.

President Obama’s funding of embryonic stem cell research is a great mistake. To get these stem cells an embryo, a human being, has to be killed, whicn is evil. There are always ethical restrictions on science, there must be one here also.
Adult stem cells have been shown to have great promise, and have already been used. They can be gotten from umbilical cord blood and other sources without diffulty, we could set up banks of this blood in hospitals. Embryonic stem cell research is unnecessary, and is evil.

Madoff plead guilty but i bet he made a deal to do it, that dog.

as for the people who loss are there saving. It sucks but too bad, i listen to this people act the victim over and over again while making 10 to 15 percent each year far above what is normal.No question asked the whole time grandly taking there money or reininvesting it. I do feel sorry for the ones that came in late but the ones who been doing this for years should get nothing.

And trying to get the government to, to reinburst them is a joke. as sad as it seems there is always a chance u will loss your money in the investment market.

and any economist or anyone who took a economics class know that 6 percent return is normally the best your going to get and anything over cant last. Dont take my money to hedge these people for there current losses and greed.

most the ones complaining the most have been with him for over 10 years, the lady on npr 28 years and none question the returns and play fool.

Most may not like what i just said but common sense did not prevail in this case, and along with Madoff his investors were equally greedy and did not ask or question such high returns, esp over 28 years. and to blame, blame, blame the irs, sec for there greed is equally assurd.

Let the Market be free and deregulate until u get hit by this free market right?

About time embryonic stem cell research IS funded!!!

We could already have this industry in full swing, coming up with cures for horrible diseases at a time when we most need anything that stimulates the economy.

Too bad we had a president for eight years who catered to religious fanatics just for their votes… finally these people are properly marginalized in politics!

also for embryonic stem,

the waste(ball of stem cells) that would have been thrown away can now be used to help better society and promote advancements in sciences. Adult stem cells are mutant cells and are more costly and could have chances of something going wrong and without advancements in stem cells they would not be talk about it in the first place.

We have fallen behind europe in this department not because of merit but religious dogma. if u dont like what there doing dont use the cure when they find it but please keep your religious beliefs to yourself and please let people and they family members along with scientist a chance to limit or help or cure there suffering.

Remember not everyone is your religious belief so dont force it on others

The mobilization required by WWII, are numbers of magnitude smaller than what will be required to conquer global warming and to achieve planetary sustainability.

Can we do it?

NO WE CAN’T!!!

Obama is Overruled by Higher Powers [again]; or else.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/israel-lobby-blamed-as-obamas-choice-for-intelligence-chief-quits-1643976.html

Callers….. please mention about this on the air.

This story should not be hiding from the mainstream media.

Week in the News:

Americans found out this week that their elected leader is actually Second in Command.

And this does not make the Cut to be an important topic at OnPoint, organically.

Read about Charles Freeman and how he was sidelined, even though he as seen as the “most qualified” to lead CIA.

Maybe he should have cheated on his taxes like Giethner.

Are you focusing on whether Obama has proposed plans that will rejuvenate the economy or proposed plans that will restore the unfettered access to wealth of the few? We have bought into an economy in which we think we all will be “the rich” when in fact we are puppets to the rich: 401(K) plans instead of defined pension benefits put our money to work for wall street instead of protecting it, no health care puts us one event away from disaster, no unions make sure we have no collective power against megacompanies, and so on. Obama’s job isn’t simply to make us all wealthier: it is to help most of the working community find decent standards of job security, health care, access to education for our children, and security in our old age. We have bought the mythology that our economy is supposed to make us rich: maybe its real goal is to make us reasonably secure. Ignore the Wall Street outrage: for this first time it is their ox that’s been gored and they accept no responsibility for getting us into this mire. Obama needs to get us out of a disastrous war, stabilize health care, put people to work. If he accomplishes these things, the economy will do fine.

WOW! Behavioral economics!? How people act? Sounds like theological anthropology!

The classic debate – are humans basically righteous or unrighteous?

Set us free and we will do good? Or we need external guidance (law, God, moral code)?

Mr. Ashbrook, keep up the great work! Keep pushing to ask the deepest questions!

I disagree completely with the caller from Sherry the financial economist. So what if elected officials set policy to get votes? What does she think a democracy is? That’s exactly what they’re supposed to do. Government, unlike business “leaders,” are elected by we the people to do our bidding. We elect them, in part, explicitly to decide how to tax and how to spend. She acts like she doesn’t think that’s a legitimate part of the process! Does she think elected officials should do instead what they’re PAID to do! We’ve had quite enough of that already, thank you very much.

Madoff exploited a niche.

In god we trust not our better angels.

That niche should not have existed.

‘Behavioural Economics’ is pretty simple on the Main Street level. For example, when I ran a bar in DC back in 1982 the owner wanted me to string green helium-filled balloons that would float all the way across H street for St. Patrick’s Day. I asked him, “Will the city let me do that?” And he said, “Do it and wait till somebody tells you stop.” He said that you can’t ask, “Can I do this?” everytime you get a good idea otherwise nothing would get done. Do owners still think this way?

In the Latest issue of Harper’s Thomas Geoghegan makes the observation that the High interest rates of the credit card lenders have allowed the financial sector to make 20-35 or more percent on their money. And therefore our manufacturing base and traditional ways of making money have not been good investments, and unable attract money. The middle class no longer able to keep by supporting our life style with credit via credit cards and home equity, after 30 years of Reaganomics and the loss of collective bargaining have finally come to a conclusion with the collapse of the financial crisis.

Kind of a weird discussion all around. Has no one noticed what happened on the stock markets all around the world this week? The interesting question is whether this means that measures taken by the US and other governments are working or that government is irrelevant or that those who move the stock market are irrational or???

Earmarks are unconstitutional.

Taxation by another’s representation.

There needs to be a system that allocates taxes based on objective need.

you can’t con an honest man.

Bruce Johnston’s comment is right on the money! Certainly we should not expect economies to remain static but the bubbles that are created by market manipulations marginalize those of us who have tried to make our living in manufacturing.

I believe extremes are unhealthy, and our current financial situation is a result of extreme capitalism.

Best Wishes, Tanya (I hope I’ve spelled it correctly!)!!! This is one of the VERY BEST shows in any public medium EVER!! So THANK YOU to your contribution to it! And very best wishes for your next adventure! Christine W.

Madoff didn’t steal 64 Billion. He stole more like 16 Billion. The figure of 64 Billion comes from what he told people they had with his years of investing. The actual money the investors gave him to invest was closer to 16 billion. Still, that’s a lot of money, especially if it was your life savings that was part of the 16 Billion.

Unmanaged capitalism inevitably lead to melamine in the milk. As long as an opening is left for criminal conduct, it will occur.

I disagree with Dennis Hayes, above. You certainly CAN con an honest man. Many honest men and women may be so overwhelmed with illness in their families as well as personal illness, with insanities in their child’s school system or from their neighbors, or with job responsibilities and exploitations that their instincts might be very easily clouded. Even more fundamentally, they might only LOOK at their bank statements or other financial documents in a cursory way, due to being overwhelmed but also “mindful” that there is at least ONE area of their lives where they do NOT need to hyper-focus, because they made a good choice in delegating — or so they THINK. A friend and I are both victims of fraud, although not of this nature; fraud perpetrated by PROFESSIONALS, and it was while we were both ill personally and taking care of dying relatives that we were taken advantage of. In both our cases, the moneys lost were those of our relatives, not of ourselves. We were not even USED TO the size of the numbers involved. We see our parents’ hard-earned and hard-saved money lost because people who owed us fiduciary responsibilities took advantage of us, to their own gain and our loss. Don’t live by cliches and slogans, Mr. Hayes. Your cliche blames the victims. In various circumstances, I am sure there are some people posing as victims, but there are also people who have been truly victimized – that is why the word exists. Your stupid cliche has no stature as judge and jury in my book. Thank you.

“Too bad we had a president for eight years who catered to religious fanatics just for their votes… finally these people are properly marginalized in politics!”

Yeah, I hope Obama extends authority to science over special interests when it comes to corn subsidy and policies related to agribusinesses and GMOs. That would be the real test whether it’s science or special interests that guide the decision-making.

We are missing the point. All the sub-prime loans paid therir originators Yield ASpread Premiijms of between $2,000 and $ 15,000, The Nation’s magazine Book Meltdown has all the details. These YSPs should be repaid since according to NPR Buisness show 90% of these loans were refinances.

The second thing we have to do is to declare Credit Default Swap Bonds illegal. A week before President Obama’s OPress conference, 400 agents at AIG received 450 million dollars in CDS Bond payments. These are illegal and fraudlent bonds since they were sold with a 1 to 30 ratio(See the presidnet’s Press Conference), and the buyers knew that the mortagages were predatory klending–therfefore, they were buying bonds inmsured and guartenteed on margin which they all knew would go bad. Stop CDS bond payments, and get all other bond sellers to retuyrn their unearned proficts, and anywhere from 65 to 100 Trillion dollars will return to the economay. See Time Magazine for March 2008 in the article by Janet Morrissey to get an introduction to this. STOP CDS Bond payments now.

We agree with Marc Kohler.

Credit Default Swaps are and can be declared illegal.

However, instead of announcing that they are null and void, we should give unprecedented guidance to court houses and judges to welcome and help and issue serious postponement of mortgage payments, when the judge sees serious disparity between the Conditions of the Loan and the Ability to Pay the Loan.

The moment we do that, [shifting the burden of proof to the Collecting/Investing institutions, the bottom of the market will get such a boost and the system can absorbe the loss/postponement of interest payments by Goldman Sachs, et. al. many many times.

For the first time in the last year, lets reverse the trend and let wealth and prosperity to trickle “up”.

“Yeah, I hope Obama extends authority to science over special interests when it comes to corn subsidy and policies related to agribusinesses and GMOs. That would be the real test whether it’s science or special interests that guide the decision-making.”

Well, you’ll be quite pleased then, when you look into or hear more about President Obama’s budget. He has stripped big agribusiness subsidies out of the budget. Finally! Gifts to Big Oil, Big Agribusiness, insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies… Big Business in general is going to pay its share and investors can stop profiting at the expense of the average taxpayer. Just remeber Bush started us down the path of bailing out the banks and insurance industries, and Obama’s choice was either throw reconcile the hundreds of billions already given away to the dumpster, or continue the policy and try and make something of what was already a bad thing. Tough choice, but in no way is it Obama’s fault… Bush and friends own the entire mess.

also something to check out, about israel HR

http://en.rian.ru/world/20090313/120549784.html

I wouldn’t want Charles Freeman, the former ambassador to (Saudi) Arabia, to head a top intelligence post if he is closer to our adversary (enemy) than our ally.

as for freeman it looked by most accounts that he worked hard for his country and has worked in saudi arabia(OUR ALLY), long with many other countries in the middle east and all over the world but pro israel lobbyist pulled as many strings to discredit him, and twist his recorded and he decided to step down to not give opponents ways to scape-goat him if intel is not politically correct. even know some pretty influential people stood up for him.

I dont recall any politician be it Democrat or republican that have stood up to israel lobbyist and actually criticizes israel without saying it has a right to defend itself, even know if iran or any other country did the same thing there be sanctions and people ready to go to war to stop them.Currently speaking as today reported on the west bank where some illegal settlements were set up, they lease the mines to israel companies to mine there and profit on ill gotten land.

peace cannot come to the middle east until israel is not the spoil child of the west u cries foul but the one hitting others while receiving no punishment what so ever. Along with blatantly discriminating against Israeli Jews and killing innocents and just calling them terrorist or supports so some how its okay.

Dont believe me u can just google or youtube it and see old man, women, children. Along with israel indoctrinating its citizens into the military and fliers sent from rabies stating gazans where animals.

yet the media, news outlets and politicians look a blind eye, and if criticism starts than the name calling starts, even the IDF put out a video showing a video of bombing a hamas target and cheer about it, than turned out to by a shop owner and his sons and pictures, and facts showing they lied about it,thanks to the Human rights people within Israel even put up a site to prove there information yet the u.s. leaders remain silence due to lobbyist are they that powerful and why cant someone have the guts to stand up to them is what i dont get.

Like a good negotiator says when solving a problem/conflict “put down the gun,then we can talk”.Here is a better speaker than I,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQURAacAYwI
or Youtube/freedomainradio true news #23
Stop eating what the blue pill company is selling.Take the red pill.Break the Matrix they have boxed your thoughts and emotions in.

Every dollar spent by the Government, whether it’s on a program, earmark, or a government employee’s salary, originates in the earnings of private industry. The government has never created a dollar of wealth — it is literally impossible. Rather, it is the innovation, risk-taking, and profit motive of business that creates economic wealth. When the Government inserts itself between the customer and the supplier — in any industry, including mortgage lending, health care, auto manufacturers and more — incentives are distorted away from profits and building economic wealth and growth, and toward currying favor and political power. The logical extreme of this type of interference is socialism. The government should provide the goods and services that we need to retain our freedom, like national defense, and allow private industry and the labor market to create wealth. This makes everyone better off. There is no real freedom without economic freedom.

Dear Sherry – you have a very simplistic view of how this world works. Are “profits and building economic wealth” all we need in the 21 century? I would also like to have freedom from innovators and risk-takers destroying my economic and physical well-being. That’s why I want the government to “insert” itself between them and myself.

Alex – Not simplistic. Plain. Correct. There’s a big difference. My point was that wealth originates in business activities. And that business activities are not exactly the bureaucrats strong suit, for a variety of reasons.

How exactly have innovators and risk-takers destroyed your economic well-being? You are capable of learning, working, speaking up for yourself?

You really think that some committee of politicians is more capable of deciding how to spend your income than you are? And what of their goals? What is they preferred to raze all the parks and build landfills instead? Don’t confuse approving of that kind of usurping of power with approving of the particular decisions they make, this time. Consider the world under some other elected leader with the same power, with whom you personally disagree.

That’s all Government spending is: replacing the private, purchasing decisions of you and me with some “politically motivated, favor currying, once it’s appropriated it will never get cut out of the budget” spending. Yes there are some goods and services we cannot provide as individuals, and must rely on our government to provide, including public goods like defense and a legal system. But I’d much rather leave the rest — business and labor decisions — in our hands. And “we” are business people, neighbors, teachers, executives and short-order cooks.

Sherry,
Yes, I “really think that some committee of politicians is more capable of deciding how to spend your income than” I am.

I want a safe neighborhood, community, and country; I want protection from disaster; I want clean streets; I want streets on which to travel, development in my community that is sensibly planned, basic services provided to my home; I want something done for the homeless and destitute so they are not sleeping and urinating on my doorstep, or breaking into my home just to eat; I want the products I buy to be safe, including my food; I want to know my money is safe in a bank; I want parks, and public arts, and public universities and schools, and many more things that help to make my time on earth interesting; I want to travel safely; etc. etc. etc.

I could go on and on, but any moron can get the point by now.

I cannot provide all of these things for myself, yet I want them… I want them from my government, and I am willing to pay for them.

Republicans just don’t seem to be able to equate quality of life for everyone with paying taxes so that services can be provided.
Not just basic services, but services that ensure that everyone can live with dignity… because I know that even one person left behind can affect MY QUALITY OF LIFE!

Alex is right, and “you have a very simplistic view of how this world works.”
Or at least how it works well, and to everyone’s benefit.

hi Sherry…
Yes:)

I have read a book on the history of Honduras. That’s the perfect example of capitalists looking out for their own interests unconstraint by such inconveniences as laws or regulations. They did create great wealth and profits for themsleves, though. That’s true. This country is not going to become like that as long as we have our votes.

If embryonic stem cell is such a promising science, why do we want the taxpayers to foot the bill? If the science has great potential for success, you would think all the private funding in the world would go into it. There is a ton of money to be made! Ask yourself, if that is truth, why do they want taxpayers to fund it? If it proves not as great as promised, then look who gets stuck with the bill again, me and you.

Be very careful with the stock market. Our economic woes have not yet bottomed. The surge in the stock market this week could be good, but what if the short traders are trying to sucker investers back in? Run the market up and then sell. Be careful, the love for money is soaked with people who work the markets for gain.

JP, Your desires for the good things in life are admiral, but to want the government to provide them will only enslave and enable people to rely on the government for their very existence. Kennedy,”Ask not what your country can do for you, but ask what you can do for your country.” If people would learn respect and moral values, many of our woes would be better. People are the backbone of this nation, not the government!
But as nations deteriorate, moral decay leads to government dependence, then to bondage. History shows the steps that previous nations followed in their fall. We are now in steps 8-9 with 10 being the fall. To save ourselves we must regain our moral and Spiritual values. If not, history will repeat itself!

Sherry has much in common with the arrogant “professionally trained” economist whose sanctimonious call had me yelling things at my radio that would get me banned from his board it I typed them here.

They are both clueless fools.

mike Do you really believe the “Palestinian rights group”? or you want to believe all the lies?http://www.honestreporting.com/articles/reports/The_Photo_that_Started_it_All.asp

http://www.honestreporting.com/articles/reports/The_Photo_that_Started_it_All.asp

March 10, 2009
Mohammed al Dura was a boy who was apparently caught in a crossfire between Israeli troops and Palestinian rioters in Gaza in 2000 and allegedly shot by the Israelis. The incident was recorded by a French film crew and gained enormous notoriety throughout the Muslim world. Several countries issued postage stamps commemorating the event, like this one:

It was the television channel France 2, whose film crew recorded the apparent shooting of al Dura, that produced the incendiary program that gave rise to much anti-Israel propaganda. Philippe Karsenty wrote that France 2’s report was a fraud, and was accused of libeling the station and its reporter. Karsenty was found liable by the trial court, but that verdict was reversed by a French appellate court in May 2008. The appellate court also ordered France 2’s raw video footage released to the public.

Today, Mr. Karsenty sent out an email on a documentary that was broadcast on German television last week. He included links to commentary in German and French, neither of which was very helpful to me. But here is Mr. Karsenty’s synopsis of the German program:

The German public TV, ARD, broadcast, on March 4, 2009, a documentary which confirms that the news report, narrated by Charles Enderlin and broadcast by France 2 on September 30, 2000, is a fraud.

Here is the evidence revealed, and confirmed, by this documentary:

* Thanks to a biometric analysis of the faces, it has been proven that the boy who was filmed by France 2 is not the boy presented at the Gaza morgue and buried later. The eyebrows and the lips are very different.

* The German TV used the lip-reading technique to read the father’s lips. They discovered that Jamal al Dura gave instructions to the people who were behind France 2’s cameraman during the filming of the scene.

* The boy filmed by France 2 moves a red piece of cloth down his body for no specific reason.

* In France 2’s news report, there is no blood – neither on Mohammed nor on Jamal al Dura’s body, whereas the two were supposed to have received 15 bullets altogether.

* The boy shown at the funeral as Mohammed al Dura arrived at the hospital before 10am, whereas France 2’s news report was filmed after 2:30pm.

The al Dura controversy continues, but, regardless of whether the story told by France 2 can be definitively refuted, the damage already done is irremediable.

The government takes from those who do and gives to those who don’t.

PROSECUTE MADOFF FOR LIFE AND SELL EVERYTHING HE AND HIS FAMILY STOLE FROM THOSE THAT TRUSTED HIM.