Hip hip hooray! Detroit rocks again with the “Detroit Demolition” (rock band).

For a while many in Detroit may have thought that the National Guard from Camp Grayling was gonna be dispatched to run tactical demolition and destroy problems in the City.

Thank goodness we have a three month reprieve to rock with the (BAND)–”Detroit Demolition”.

Some, I hope, will rock with the song “Rockin Around The Christmas Tree”!!! After all, “tis’ the season to be jolly”………….

In the mean time; look for a sale on Canadian Mist Whiskey!!!! It’s really good stuff!!!

It’s nice to think of helping the 80 year old Madoff investor, but what about the 80 year old retired person who never had the inside track on the “latest sure thing” by investing with Madoff and kept his/her small savings in some dull low interst paying investment that is still barely working for them.

I think that surplus of cash just sitting there, will soon be put to use on more worthy causes like U.I benefits and food stamps for people who really need it.

Why those victims need to be helped? they decided to play the investor, casino style, why should I (taxpayer)help them? what is in there for me? are they going to pay me back once they are back on their feet? For some of us who are still fortunate to have a job is not that easy, we are making a lot of sacrifices as well, and, believe me, I’m not talking about giving up Starbucks coffee, or pedicures or manicures or pate, I’m talking about buying more at the 99 cent store and less at Safeway, I’m talking about my wife and I giving up milk so our kids can drink more and stretch that gallon, buying less meat an more 99 cent pasta, going to bed afraid that the following day might be the last day at job, why should I help them if I decided to not to play casino investor? why?

Maybe it’s a Christmas spirit kind of thing, Mr. Scrooge!

I feel for those old folks down in Fla. who have seen a significant portion of their savings disappear because of the Madoff scandal. I sympathize with their losses and I understand some of the tough choices that they are going to have to make. Yep, I bet they didn’t realize that when they placed their order at the NY Deli that they were about to get a crap sandwich on a Kaiser roll. Still, at least most of them have enough means and faculties with which they can make decisions.

I have an indigent parent who needs a long-term nursing home bed. Whe has very limited means, she can’t take care of herself and I can not provide the kind of care she needs on a 24/7 basis. We’re having a heck of a time finding a slot for her because of the shortage of Medicaid beds in our area. It seems that Uncle Sam’s reimbursement rates aren’t high enough to encourage the local entrepreneurs to convert more of their private-pay beds to Medicaid beds. So, I get to foot my mother’s bill instead.

So, if there’s going to be any Christmas cheer coming from Uncle Sugar, please let it go the Medicaid system. I’m sure that all of these poor, elderly people could use it more than your or me.

Bing,

Let me add to this holiday cheer.

Talked to some work associates about how one of my neighbors, a bank vp, was nervous for his job.

I told my colleagues he has three young children and his wife stays home to raise them.

One wag responded by intoning,

“Looks like the b…. needs to get a job.”

Merry Christmas, Prof. Maslow, wherever you are.

Could Madoff be the first Wall Street capital punishment case? Would it put everyone on point that there are other consequences besides losing some money and doing a little jail time?

Perhaps a Federal Lottery would cheer us up. At least we would have a chance at the big money!

Bing: You are right, it is Xmas, however I have a hard time feeling sorry for folks who had surplus money to invest, got enough to retire in some nice place whereas the reality is that, there are millions of retirees who never had the kind of money to invest and retire nice, who worked all their life and now, when they need more they can not get the medicine they need, the care they need, they hardly have a roof, if any, and now, because of the financial mess, they are loosing the few things they had, I feel sorry for all the soldiers that are returning from Iraq and nobody is there to help them, I feel sorry for all those families who have spouses and children fighting in Iraq and they only support they get is a silly decal or magnet in our cars that says “support our troops”, sorry Bing, it is Xmas but I do not feel sorry for those guys who had the money to invest and comfy retire and now they lost everything, I just can not fell sorry for them right now.

If the recommendation to bail out duped investors is going to carry, it will set a mighty precedent. Ponzi scheme damage has far from bottomed out. Also, it would be only fair to have such victims get in line behind those of muggings, purse snatchings, pick-pockets, burglaries, and other non-investor victims.

And what about the multitudes who actually bought tangible things only to learn they’d been ripped off? The prime Florida real estate turns out to be swamp, the deed to the Brooklyn Bridge a forgery.

Where will the bailing out stop?

What about Wheel of Fortune Bonus Round contestants who lost tens of thousands because of unreasonably difficult words to guess like ’synaptic rhythm?’

Frankly, I’m still ticked about the money I mailed off as a child to buy Sea Monkeys.

In going through the current news, one finds it’s very sad that the banking industry seems to be hoarding bailout money instead of lending it out the way it was intended.

It seems that, according to a news commentator, the bankers are out getting petticures, manicures, and finger nails and toe nails painted while nothing in the banking industry gets done according to the terms of the bailout agreement. His comment: “And these are men!”

Who represents the American model–Bankers, Builders, mortgagers, sleasy Ponzi peddlers, Big Three, UAW, or Government???

Where have all the “ROLL MODELS” gone???

One can imagine the confusion in the American education system.

Where is General George Patton when you need him?

It is sad but people are victimized by crooks and swindlers every day of the year.

This was a bigger crook than most, and most of the people vicitimized here once were well to do – now they’re poor. All are deserving of our sympathy. I hope they’re getting their social security checks like everyone else who has paid into the system, they’re covered by medicare like all the elderly.

But we should pay special attention to these particular people because…once they had money and now they don’t, unlike the formerly poor who remain poor?

I’m serious about a Lottery.

Picture a one billion U.S. Federal lottery. The winner gets to keep half (half goes back to the government via the IRS). The balance gets paid over 20 years ($25 million/year), so the government gets to invest $475 million and earn interest on it. Make it a worldwide lottery and we pay down the trillions in worthless monopoly money the fed has printed.

Duplicate this lottery in each state and, with the profits, we can all qualify for more credit cards with higher limits!

Paul of Miami, I cede you my Hallmark greeting card writing prospects.

Bankers are finally getting the reputation they so richly deserve.

I can remember a particularly obnoxious bank VP, referring to collective bargaining units (which I have represented from time to time)as unnecessary, since his financial success had never depended upon union membership, though he supposed the less capable might need such help. It was all I could do to keep from stating the obvious….why would he need collective bargaining rights when he could accomplish so much more through effective and prolonged boss butt-kissing?

His bank has since collapsed, and I soon expect to see him out on the street wearing a sandwich sign…which should go well with his pinstripes and wingtips. Of course, to a man of such low dignity, there is no place to go but up.

Jacky Boy wrote:

I think that surplus of cash just sitting there, will soon be put to use on more worthy causes like U.I benefits and food stamps for people who really need it.

Whats a U.I benefit?

We are now in the Age of Aquarius and it is important to learn what that means. Let us all work at fixing the problems instead of bitching about them. I suggest we all decide on one color to paint the 2009 cars coming from the car manufacturers. The cost savings would be great and the color of the cars would serve to remind us not to be greedy, and share with our neighbors. Think White!

Sorry Santa Bing – No money for nothin’. If they can play golf they can establish a special jobs program for tee-off starters, marshals, greenskeepers subsidized by the bailout.(This may also help prepare for more restrictive immigration laws that could impact the golf resorts’s labor pool)

Too bad they lost their dough but we will all be working till we croak so get over it.

I guess I am advocating for those that are capable but have no dough, to step up and add value to this economy as retirement is a myth unless Suzy Ormond Approves (you have enough to sloth around with).

you wanna play the game you’re gonna pay. common sense would tell you that when someone guarantees no downside it’s probably too good to be true but I’ve learned long ago common sense escapes the common american.

call me cynic if you’d like but i’ve completely lost faith in this country at my young age. the ‘ greatest generation’ would be appalled at the current state of affairs. it’s sad that americans still think tax money is best spent on handouts to people who think they’re somehow entitled to free money. responsibility is a lost art form……

banks are hoarding cash waiting for the next shoe to drop (commercial RE, credit card defaults etc.)Why should we force them to lend this money if they’re going to need it in 12-18 months?

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again but expecting a different outcome. The current problem isn’t anything different, it’s just a bigger bubble that burst.

Esta situacion que esta viviendo los Estados Unidos es similar a la que se dio en Mexico en 1995, el famoso “error de Diciembre”. Se establecio un programa, el famoso “FOBAPROA”, que fue un desastre.

Whats a U.I benefit?

Posted By AA guy,

Unemployment Insurance Benefit, AKA Pogey, on the Dole, etc.

Bing — It’s the Christmas season, and my 79 year old mother is working at a local department store 25 hours a week and ironing the clothes of other people to make ends meet. She never could afford to retire to Florida and invest with an invitation-only Ponzi shyster. Somebody who owns a two-bedroom condo in Florida that they can sell doesn’t seem all that broke to me.

It’s nice that you want to help out the old folks in Florida. Go right ahead. But what’s “not right” about people who believed that they could buy the Brooklyn Bridge finding out that they can’t?

And no, not all of us believed in the risk/reward game as it was played by Bernie Madoff, because that game supposedly offered only reward and no risk. People who bought into that are seeing the chickens come home to roost, nothing more. If you want to reward that kind of stupid greed (and that’s all it is, if we’re honest about it), then feel free to do so with your own money.

You know what, Steve? You’re right, of course. My problem is, now I want your mother to get a bailout.

That’s damned decent of you, Stanley; but she doesn’t want to get a bailout. I’ve tried. She’s got that whole child-of-the-Depression/raised-on-a-farm-work-ethic/pride-of-self-sufficiency thing going on. I’m pretty proud of her. I think it would be nice if more of the country was like her.

What is all the talk about bailing out the banking industry, automobile industry and every industry who needs assistance. What about the hard working American citizens. who is going to bail us out?

This Ponzi scheme is the risk part of the risk/reward equation. Since we feel all in the christmas mood, can I get a bailout from somebody for my student loans? 120k for a bachelor’s degree? If I didn’t believe in personal responsibility I might be out asking people for money. If anything, this disaster happened to show people to really take stock in the risk they are taking before doing something. People will never learn their lessons unless we let them feel the full consequences of their actions. It takes a life-changing event in order to change your life-views, fancy that.

Me too, Steve. But some people (and by extension some companies) need a little help. Why not put the bad guys in jail and make sure a few innocents (or dupes) get a little assistance when it really counts?

Bing: By the article you wrote and the answers you have been giving back to the comments, sounds like you or some in your family, were duped by Madoff. If you notice by the comments, almost nobody believes that people who was duped by the Madoffs of the financial world deserve to be bailed out. I agree. When it comes to money, rule number one is that you have to be cold and deliberate when deciding who to trust and what kind of game to play. These folks did not do their homework, c’mon, you have to smell something fishy when someone offers you returns far, far, too far better than any other investment vehicle, and something is wrong when that institution or individual can not, or does not want to explain exactly how he makes all this money, plus, if the statements are impossible to read…… you got the idea. These folks were nothing but greedy, I bet they are nice and decent people, and feel sorry for them, but unfortunately they were not able to control that primary instinct called greed, they wanted immediate gratification regardless of the cost.

Bing: Sounds like you, friends or family members, or all the above, were duped. The problem is that investors did not do their homework, rule number one when handling money: you have to be cold, heartless, calculating and deliberative, seems to me that the Madoffs of the financial world fit the above description but not their prey, obviously. Sorry but those “high flying” investors have to pay their lack of attention of detail and violation of the aforementioned number one rule. C’mon, if it is too good to be true……Those poor investors were not only victims of Madoff et al, but they were also victims of their own unchecked greed. Yes.

I think basics stay the same no matter where you are or what your endeavor.

The World is a jungle and always has been a jungle.

There have always been perpetraters and prey. Longevity has usually been the reward to prey for their respect of the unknown.

We tend to respect pain more intensely than pleasure. Pleasure lets one wallow in frivolous and unguarded behavior and trouble.

Respect of pain leads one to practicing the discipines of looking before leaping.

Of course among the population are those that think that 2+2=6 and likes it; and those that know that 2+2=4 and hates it.

Happy holidays to all, and to all a healthy tolerance for the pain to come in 2009.

Bing,
Doesn’t anyone get sarcasm any more.

These are all people who had 2, 5, 10, 50, 100 million to invest. They took their chances and they lost. NO FREAKING WAY THEY GET TAXPAYER MONEY.

No one gives me back my bad investments. No one reduces my mortgage payments. No one bails out my business when I make bad decisions.

What the hell has happened in this country? Bailouts are nothing more than rich and powerful people (read Congress) giving other rich and powerful people (read Wall Street bankers and executives) other people’s money. ITS THEFT!!! Look how much given to the banks – how little to the car companies – at least at GM 100K middle class folks will get a paycheck for another 3 or 6 months. And you want to give it to former millionaires????

I feel bad for the charities but even there…undoubtedly there are people getting paid 150K, 200K to run the charity and they screwed up!! They deserve to be fired and out of a job. I have no sympathy for them….my only sympathy is for those that received services from the charities.

Enough is enough. Want to invest with some hot shot super duper secret money man – great…its a free country – free to make a ton – free to lose it all.

No sympathy for folks that thought they were “in” something that average ordinary people (read the low-life non elites) couldn’t get into and thus allowed them to live better.

Tough &#&$^$

Sometimes. But not always, I guess.