A world-weary Baptist businessman I know likes to say, "Nobody will screw you like a brother in Christ." Meaning that there's a special kind of cynicism employed by people who use religiosity as a cover for dastardly deeds. I know......

Filed under: Scandals Bernard Madoff has become one of the most infamous non-violent people in the history of the world for operating the largest Ponzi scheme ever, widely quoted at something like $50 billion. But some experts say that the number is exaggerated, and suggest that the actual figure co...

Charles Ponzi (March 3, 1882 – January 18, 1949) was one of the greatest swindlers in American history. His aliases include Charles Ponei, Charles P. Bianchi, Carl and Carlo. The term "Ponzi scheme" is a widely known description of any scam that pays early investors returns from the investments of...

If Bernie Madoff's alleged $50 billion Ponzi scheme screwed you over, it's time to get in line to make your claim....

and we would be surprised by this because...? In what could turn out to be the greatest fraud in US history, American authorities have started to investigate the alleged role of senior military officers in the misuse of $125bn (£88bn) in a US -directed effort to reconstruct Iraq after the fall of S...

The TARP Congressional Oversight Panel has released a report which puts a number for the first time on how many billions of our money Hank Paulson managed to lose right up front when he pumped capital into mismanaged banks. By way of background, recall this Bloomberg article from four weeks ago: Hen...

A court filing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan made public a 162-page document listing his various clients, which include Hall of Fame Pitcher Sandy Koufax, actor Kevin Bacon, and the Wilpon family, owners of the New York Mets. The amount of money invested with Madoff, whose brokerage was actu...

But the Std-Ex drops the ball, and inexplicably omits key material facts By Curmudgeon In this morning's Standard-Examiner, there is a long story, by Tim Gurrister, reporting that "Two Val Southwick cohorts have been charged as accomplices in the financial escapades that landed the Ogden financier i...

Filed under: Rants and raves, Scandals There have been a few stories about whether the Jewish community in the U.S. will have its reputation hurt by the fact that Bernie Madoff is Jewish. Today the top story at Reuters is about that subject. The media is letting the issue spread. The news service wr...

Sunday Afternoon News Roundup Although Israel’s Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has stated that his country is close to achieving its objective, it is hard for me to imagine what that objective is. If the objective is chaos, starvation and causing more Palestinians to hate you intensely, then perha...