Posted by
peripheral on Saturday, December 13, 2008 7:26:16 AM
From My Perspective - - -
There
are same words that signify loss, failure, irresponsibility, or
unanticipated events occurring that make it difficult for one to
survive financially. Bankruptcy used to carry with it a sense of shame
and/or failure. When the word is used as an adjective, American
Heritage Dictionary defines Bankruptcy as, “having been legally
declared financially insolvent; financially ruined; impoverished;
depleted of valuable qualities or characteristics; totally depleted;
destitute; being in a ruined state…” It’s a situation that should be
avoided.
Think of the panic some must sense and feel when they
learn their “investments” are vanished and their future has been spent
and/or lost by the misdeeds and misrepresentations of a trusted
individual. The Drudge Report for Saturday, December 13th has a Bold
Headline declaring: “MADOFF'S ALLEGED $50 BILLION FRAUD HITS OTHER
INVESTORS.” The report continues: “Investors scrambled to assess
potential losses from an alleged $50 billion fraud by Bernard Madoff, a
day after the arrest of the prominent Wall Street trader. Prosecutors
and regulators accused the 70-year-old, who was chairman of the NASDAQ
Stock Market in the early 1990s, of masterminding a fraud of epic
proportions through his investment advisory business, which managed at
least one hedge fund. Hundreds of people, investing with him through
the firm's clients, entrusted Madoff with billions of dollars. Madoff's
investors included captains of industry, corporations -some of which
are publicly traded - that used Madoff almost as a high-yielding cash
management account, endowments, universities, foundations and,
importantly, many high-profile funds of funds, said Douglas Kass, who
heads hedge fund Seabreeze Partners Management. It appears that at
least $15 billion of wealth, much of which was concentrated in southern
Florida and New York City, is gone… Federal agents arrested Madoff at
his apartment on Thursday after prosecutors said he told senior
employees that his money management operations were all just one big
lie and basically, a giant Ponzi scheme. A Ponzi scheme is an illegal
investment vehicle that pays off old investors with money from new
ones, and is dependent on a constant stream of new investment. Because
the invested capital is not earning a sufficient return on its own,
such schemes eventually collapse under their own weight. Madoff is the
founder of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC, a market-making
firm he launched in 1960. His separate investment advisory business had
$17.1 billion of assets under management.”
An obvious tension
emerges from this account. First, there is an individual who sacrifices
his scruples and character by developing an “investment scheme” that
would – Secondly, appeal to people of means and wealth who would allow
greed for more to overshadow safety in investment. It appears there may
be no more than $300 million dollars left from this $50 Billion Dollar
scheme. Question: What happened to the Billions of Dollars that passed
through his hands? Why were people so gullible? Whatever happened to
the common sense concept: “If it sounds too good to be true – It’s too
good to be true?”
Consider these things with me - - - Somehow
the words of Luke 12:13-15 need to echo through our land – Congress,
Banks, Industry, Investments – “Someone in the crowd said to him,
Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me. Jesus
replied, Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you? Then
he said to them, Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of
greed; a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his
possessions." Greed is one of The Seven Deadly Sins. The list includes:
“PRIDE is excessive belief in one's own abilities, that interferes with
the individual's recognition of the grace of God. It has been called
the sin from which all others arise. ENVY is the desire for others'
traits, status, abilities, or situation. GLUTTONY is an inordinate
desire to consume more than that which one requires. LUST is an
inordinate craving for the pleasures of the body. ANGER is manifested
in the individual who spurns love and opts instead for fury. It is also
known as Wrath. GREED is the desire for material wealth or gain,
ignoring the realm of the spiritual. It is also called Avarice or
Covetousness. SLOTH is the avoidance of physical or spiritual work.
Bankruptcy results when the focus is on the Material and Temporal; Good
Return occurs when one Invests In Things Eternal – receiving God’s
Dividend – His Blessing and Provision!