I am sure we all have different tolerance levels for national news (I know I can't watch news on TV for more than a few minutes without losing my mind) but some of the over-told stories out there do in fact have interesting backstories (shoes!). This whole Madoff (Modaff in disguise?) Ponzi-scheme business is pretty unbelievable. The crazy thing is how all of these financial woes seem to come one after another in waves, but as Warren Buffet said, "you only find out who is swimming naked when the tide goes out." Well it certainly sounds like Mr. Modaff (Madoff) was going commando.
When it comes to financial meltdowns and general investor-related mayhem people always wonder why they didn't see it coming. Well the answer is usually that someone did, but noone wanted to listen (see Noriel Roubini about our current financial woes). Turns out that was true of this Ponzi character as well. This is a report submitted to the SEC 3 years ago, and honestly I think it is pretty funny shit (even though it is full of stock market mumbo-jumbo). For an explaination of split-strike conversion listen to the Planet Money podcast here (if you haven't heard of it you should check it out b/c it makes you feel a little less lost in the mayhem).
