The Day in 100 Seconds

We made it to Monday, Yes it is Monday, Bernie Madoff, judgment day, day of reckoning for Bernie Madoff, set to be sentenced, sixty-five billion, let's get some flavor now, fabulous life with the money he stole, topless waitresses, smoking marijuana, victims talking, angry, lowest depths of hell, violated trust, he broke my spirit, how am I every going to trust, breaking news, giving him the maximum, 150 years in prison, life in prison, no doubt about it, mouths of Satan, faced the victims, sorry, his response in court today was pathetic, any remorse, an ounce of remorse, most despised American today, some satisfaction?, not really, victims starting serving their sentence last December, broken system, allowed this to happen, what happened, how did this go on for so long?, where was the SEC?, people trusted the SEC, the regulators, they failed, we trusted the SEC

Rep. Marcy Kaptur (Ohio-D) on 'The Bankers'

I love how Marcy calls them 'Barons of Wall Street', 'The 'Banksters'. Keep up the good work Marcy. Go OHIO!

Here's the link to Michael Moore's post entitled 'Bernie Madoff, Scapegoat', on The Huffington Post.

Keith Olbermann talks AIG on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno

Smash-Me Bernie figurine a hit

It needs more wrinkles I think, but I'm sure it serves the intended purpose.

The Smash-Me Bernie figurine wears a devil's red suit, carries a pitchfork and comes with a golden hammer for smashing the doll into pieces.

Creator Graeme Warring said he came up with the idea after a friend of his lost money in the scandal.

Mr Madoff's former clients may not feel like meeting the $100 price tag.
Smash-me Bernie attracted worldwide media interest when it went on display at the New York Toy Fair this week, says the doll's creator.

source: BBC News

SEC Chief Linda Thomsen stepping down to return to private sector

The article goes on to say that Ms. Thompsen is leaving to explore other opportunities in the private sector. It's hard to imagine that there are any opportunities in the private sector but alrighty.

AP reports that Securities and Exchange Commission Chief Linda Thomsen is leaving the agency less than a week after receiving an angry dressing-down before Congress over the agency’s failure to detect the $50 billion Ponzi scheme allegedly run by money manager Bernard Madoff.

The SEC said Thomsen is leaving to pursue opportunities in the private sector, but did not provide further details. Source: USA Today/AP

Here's the dressing down that took place.

If you want to fast forward to around 2:07, Ackerman railed on the group, asks what happened, and Linda Thomsen starts talking. I haven't viewed the questioning and answers given prior to Ackerman taking his turn, but I suspect it was nothing, and that was exactly what enraged him.

GM, the SEC, Capitalism, Competition: Look to Apple and the Seve Jobs Model

Eliot Spitzer has an article in Slate today, which I actually read all the way through, in large part due to the fact that he is a disgraced governor because of a prostitution scandal.

Everybody deserves another chance.

Comparing the failures of the SEC and GM and bringing in a factor of competition, Spitzer had this to say.

The contrast to the real marketplace, where a company like Apple has to reinvent itself every product cycle, is remarkable. GM and the SEC need the Steve Jobs mentality. It doesn't matter that the SEC is a government agency. Instead of focusing on cookie-cutter processing of minor claims, it needs to value creativity. It needs to move fast so that tipsters will feel that their information will be acted upon, not shuffled up in triplicate to a committee that eons later may read and discard it. Both GM and the SEC need to see a change in market conditions as an opportunity—not a challenge to market share.

We must rebuild these two institutions. If we don't infuse them with a culture of change and love of competition, they will fail once again. The SEC should go out and hire some of the young, recently laid-off traders from hedge funds and investment banks. They need work, and better than any group of lawyers or agent-investigators, they know what trading patterns and practices to examine and where to drop subpoenas to find the skeletons. The SEC should welcome the creative tension that results from having state regulators or other federal agencies such as the CFTC on the beat. And GM should use government funding for green technology to truly transform itself: It should build the infrastructure for plug-in technology that will be the next iteration of "gas stations." source: Slate

Then I decided to poke around see what's up with Eliot Spitzer besides this piece in Slate.

Apparently, he does not really have an appetite for being a columnist.

John Gapper got this comment from Spitzer when asked how he was enjoying being a columnist during a Slate holiday gathering in mid-December.

I went over afterwards to ask him how he was enjoying life as a columnist. “It sucks,” he said with a grin. “I used to be governor of New York”. source: Financial Times

Well. All I can say is that at least someone is reading your column Mr. Spitzer. I did and perhaps I will again.