What to do, what to say, what do people want to read, these are the questions I’ve been asking myself over and over again this week. I have spent an enormous amount of time thinking about how to answer these questions. And every time I think about it, the same thing pops into my head: Mr. Madoff and his minions. They all knew what to do, what to say, and what people wanted to read.
Anyway, I’ve come to one conclusion: I am just not that smart. In the end, I guess, I just don’t know how to sell it or maybe I’m just not as sick and twisted as Bernie and his minions.
For weeks now, I’ve been saying this whole thing is a four-act play. The first act was his birth, his marriage and his beginnings on The Street. Act two is the thirty year fraud. Act three is the confession and guilty plea. And act four is his all-expenses paid vacation to Florida or some other minimum security prison where he sits around and laughs at all of us for the rest of his days. He laughs because he has won. Sure, he isn’t free and he no longer lives on Park Avenue or can fly off to here or there at a moment’s notice but I bet he doesn’t care. He doesn’t care because he was able to do it for thirty years. He lived better then 99.999 percent of the world for decades. Now he is reduced to a cell, a bunk, three squares a day and a jumpsuit – Act Four.
Don’t you get it? Don’t you see that he won? We all are collectively the losers. The hedge fund industry has been turned upside down in the last twelve months. People don’t know who to trust, how to trust or even if they want to trust anyone in light of the massive losses experienced in the Madoff fraud and market turmoil. It is not good and it is not going to get any better until people realize that this whole thing is a nightmare and that it is time to wake up.
I, like many people today, am mad as hell and have decided not to take it anymore. My solution is not to get angry, go mad or think of ways to get even. That would be too easy, not necessary and frankly a bit of a bore. Instead, I am paying closer attention to everything, starting first with my wife, my kids, my community and my country. I suggest you do the same. Time is too short to be wasted on being mad about things that we can’t control. That is what I have decided to say, to write and to sell to you.
THINGS THAT DRIVE ME CRAZY
I really don’t care for the check engine light in my car. I have a 2001 BMW that is just awesome except for one thing: the check engine light. It came on this week and the only way to figure it out is to run a series of tests using a machine that I don’t have nor am going to buy. I find it funny that while technology has improved all aspects of transportation, it has also made owning a car more difficult.