Oh, don’t get me wrong–Madoff will, and should, die in prison. But, there is a downside to all this obsession with Bernie Madoff–his crimes are miniscule compared to the legalized robbery that went on in Wall Street and devastated the lives of millions of people. And we can’t let the media circus around Madoff let the others off the hook.
Today, we learn:
In the last few months, most Americans have felt poorer. Now they have the numbers to prove it.
The Federal Reserve reported Thursday that households lost $5.1 trillion, or 9 percent, of their wealth in the last three months of 2008, the most ever in a single quarter in the 57-year history of recordkeeping by the central bank.
For the full year, household wealth dropped $11.1 trillion, or about 18 percent. Though the numbers do not yet reflect it, the decline in the stock market so far this year has probably erased trillions more in the country’s collective net worth.
The next biggest annual decline in wealth came in 2002, when household net worth fell 3 percent after the collapse of the technology bubble. The most recent loss of wealth is staggering and will probably put further pressure on the economy because many people will have to spend less and save more.
People are out of work, their savings are devastated, they have lost their homes and are moving into motels or trailers.
And that loss of wealth is not because of the Madoff-like outright breaking of the law. It is, in fact, the devastation of the economy engineered by people like Robert Rubin, Alan Greenspan, the leaders of Citibank, Bank of America, Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae and the rest of the fools who now want our tax dollars, and the politicians who let them build the asset bubble that exploded.
Madoff has said he is sorry and deeply ashamed.
Where is the apology from all those people who are responsible and are dodging their own culpability?
