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!
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!
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