Saturday
Dec072013
Madoff Knew End Was Near When His Caddy Was Flipping Houses
Sitel Patel visits Ponzi schemer extraordinaire Bernie Madoff at Butner Federal CC and among the many revelations: Madoff knew the bubble was coming when his caddie told him he was flipping houses.From the WSJ story:
Mr. Madoff recalled one of the first moments he sensed that economic conditions in 2008 could be fragile. He was at the Palm Beach Country Club in Florida, he said, and he had "a young black kid" for a caddy, and the caddy was buying and selling homes.
"He said he didn't need credit. He would buy homes and flip them for a profit," Mr. Madoff recalled. "I told my wife, 'This is the end.' "
Reader Comments (17)
So the crash is the black peoples' fault. I'm so relieved. Great article, Mr. Santelli.
Yeah, I'm racist. You got me. By the way, your tea bag is dangling.
He says a young black kid is flipping houses is pretty racist my Madoff himself. One I guess could interpret it 2 different ways but I for one interpreted it as Madoff being racist.
Sarcasm was very evident in the outrage post.
Viz got it right.
It reminds me of why Joe Kennedy, the Boston financier and father of Jack, Bobby and Teddy, got out of the stock market just before the Great Depression. He knew it was time to get out when the kid shining his shoes began giving him stock tips. The kid was Italian, and still shining shoes when a newspaper caught up with him in 1985.
For me, some of stories on "Flip this House", a ridiculous show on US CATV were what convinced me that the end was near. It made it seem like you could add 5k granite counters and redo some cabinets and somehow add 80,000 in value to a home. The funny thing is that the people really believed that it was their hard work that was adding the value to the home, not the inflating balloon. Unfortunately, short of selling your residence and moving to an apartment, it didn't seem like there was much that could be done to avoid taking the pummeling that the bust delivered.
And Golden Bell got it right; Outrage needs to see somebody to help him take the "rage" out of "Outrage".