It's Literally Pronounced "Made Off"

I don't have much of in terms of formal economics education, so I often struggle to machete my way through the thicket of the issues we're facing during this ongoing financial crisis.

I often bookmark blogs or articles to read but too often, I chicken out or get distracted by items that conform to the things that I generally write about.

But on Friday afternoon, I forced myself to read this long New York Times chronology of Bernard Madoff's $50 billion (with a B) international Ponzi scheme.

And I'm really glad I did.

It was absolutely riveting and I can't get it out of my mind. I'd say that if you've been struggling to understand the Madoff scheme, this is a good place to start because the narrative is so compelling and interesting to read. The media really has no idea how to explain this to the lay reader so I don't think they've quite imparted to people the scope of the fraud. It's historic.

I spent all weekend regurgitating the story to friends, which also helped me wrap my mind around some of the concepts and inspired me to conjure up a much clearer visualization of the larger financial system.

I don't normally glow about an article like this, it is definitely worth 45 minutes of your time. This guy was a total Bond villain and you get to imagine the plot of that movie in your mind. He even has the last name of a Bond villain.

--

If you decide to take the plunge and invest some time into the Madoff article, come back here and tell me what kind of weird physical abnormality your Madoff/Bond villain caricature has for which he needs to dominate the world in order to compensate.

My Bernard Madoff sustained an inoperable facial injury as a child that has caused him to experience a perpetual nose bleed. Doctors resolved this by diverting the blood into a series of cysts in the back of his throat that need to be drained by a busty fembot assassin in between hands of Texas Hold'em on a Mediterranean yacht.