January 8, 2009 The Wizard of FraudzEvery time the economy takes a nose-dive, we roust up a few frauds and a bevy of humbugs. This outing's big villain is financier Bernard Madoff. For decades, Madoff made off with billions of other people's money by pretending to invest it honestly. Instead, he paid off early "investors" with the "investments" of later "investors." To keep the Ponzi scheme going, Madoff had to keep widening the circle of the victims -- which meant that he and his boosters had to keep whispering sweet cryptic nothings to awestruck big-pocketed individuals eager to join an exclusive club. Some prospects declined. They now say they could get no real information about how he was investing. What? Oracular pronouncements weren't enough for these skeptics? Another Delphic entity that pretends to "invest" our money is the federal government. Its masterminds, too, claim to know everything about doing financial magic -- but explain nothing. The Federal Reserve, for example, is refusing to comply with media requests for info on the "emergency loans" now being handed to ailing companies. America's government officials "know," somehow, that they can "invest" in decrepit, floundering, washed-up firms and industries, using money siphoned from actually productive enterprise, while always paying off old government debt with new government debt, adding up to trillions . . . and somehow everything will turn out all right. Pay no attention to those men behind the curtain! This is Common Sense. I'm Paul Jacob. Comment on this episode | Listen to this episode Paul Jacob is President of Citizens in Charge and a Senior Advisor to the Sam Adams Alliance, which sponsors both Paul’s weekly Townhall column and Common Sense, a short radio commentary featured in over 100 radio stations throughout the country. Click here to visit our new website, which has archives of Paul’s commentary since 1999! For more information — and more ways to get involved — click on more Sam Adams Alliance projects below: This message was sent from Common Sense to fbelli...@yahoo.com. It was sent from: Sam Adams Alliance, 20 N. Wacker Dr. Suite 3330 , Chicago, IL 60606. You can modify/update your subscription via the link below. Manage your subscription --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ This is a Free Speech forum. The owner of this list assumes no responsibility for the intellectual or emotional maturity of its members. If you do not like what is being said here, filter it to trash, ignore it or leave. If you leave, learn how to do this for yourself. If you do not, you will be here forever. -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---