In defense of Bernard Madoff

Bernie was the man with infinite wisdom, and immensible reputations. This description took a sudden turn after the fall of his $50 billion dollar ponzi scheme. He is now the heartless criminal who deserves no sympathy and a good beating in the prison. But I feel for this guy, I think the anger people took on him were a bit outrages, especially from the so called real Wall-street folks. After all, none of the Wall-street powerhouse investment firms had any money in the Madoff Securities, I suspect it is only because they have figured it out long ago. But out of all the intelligent people who figured it out, only one guy, Harry Markpolos spoke out about it. So hear me out.

First of, for all those people who lost their money, you know it's the greed got into you, I mean come on, 12% consistent annual return is just too good to be true. And if you think about it, the whole reason Bernie's operation failed is because of the nervy investors started pulling out their money when the stock market crashed, but Madoff never invested their money in stocks. If you trust him, you should have trusted him all the way even through the toughest times, then all of you would be still enjoying your 12% annual return while everybody else on Wall-street is crying. The bottom line is that giving your money to Madoff is no different from giving it to the other Wall-street investors, because you have no idea what the fuck they are doing with your money anyways. In my opinion, the amount of risk taking by investing with Madoff was practically none if you are the smarter ones and know to pull your money out early.

Secondly, Bernie Madoff never tried to cover it up when he saw things started falling down, he turned himself in immediately to the authorities. He was always calm and composed, compare to the other Wall-street firms who tries to scare the world off with their "too big to fail" slogans. Gambling with other peoples money, that is what they all do, at least Bernie did it with some decency. In the end, the Wall-street firms not only survived but striking back with greater profit and bonuses, so I guess maybe Bernie was just a bit less good at bending the rules, or simply not big enough. Or maybe, just maybe, the rest of the people like us were just way more stupid compare the people who invested with Madoff Securities.

Thirdly, Bernie Madoff took it like a man, pleading guilty on all charges with no plea bargaining and didn't sell out on a single other person. Anyone with a bit common sense would know that there is a bigger scandal here. Who is he trying to cover up? Who all knew about this? Bernie didn't say a thing, this took some guts. If he were to live in ancient China, he would be at least titled “忠义(zhong yi)” by people on the street.

For all those who were about to give me the looks, listen, I am not trying to sympathize or defend Bernie Madoff here. I know it's just way easier to blame it on a single person when shit goes down, it's only human nature. But in comparison, all those smart people who missed the housing bubbles, who guaranteed subprime mortgages, who traded unregulated Credit Default Swaps, who fucked up the entire economy and robbed your money at point blank, really got off easy.