Elie Wiesel's Proposed Punishment for Bernie Madoff

someone told me that probably his sons did know about it...scrap that idea Confused

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Say, Think or Do One Thing Now to Bring Moshiach!

I think Madoff is every bit as bad as he's being made out to be. He had so many years to rethink what he was doing, and used that time to take more money instead.

Didn't chazal compare taking all of someone's money to killing them (does anyone know what I mean -- commentary on Esav's son/grandson who was sent to kill Yaakov as he fled -- gah why can I never remember exact sources...)?

I like Elie Wiesel's punishment, very creative.

OTOH I agree with JC that Madoff is being disproportionately blamed to a certain extent. I think it's easier to point at Madoff as a source of bankruptcy, businesses going under, etc, than to look at the much larger issue of American banking policy, the whole mortgage issue which ties in to home ownership (how maybe it won't be nearly as easy to reach anymore) and what Americans can realistically expect out of life, materially speaking, whether the government needs to step in and to what extent... It's easier to avoid those tough debates and talk about Madoff because everyone agrees that stealing is bad.

I don't know what most Americans think about Madoff in respect to the overall financial crisis, I'm going more on what I see in the American media, which seems to be pushing the Madoff story at the expense of the issues that will have an effect in the much longer term.

(And I also see JC's point re: theft compared to other crimes... I think what's getting to people here is the scope. A mugger or molester can hurt one or 10 or dozens of people, and that's unfortunately not unheard of... but this guy managed to hurt tens of thousands and that is very uncommon, and very frightening).

Posted: Fri, Mar 13 2009, 8:54 am Post subject:

The whole thing is sick. sick sick

Bernie Madoff did a HUGE chillul hashem.

He and his family lived an extravagant life off other peoples money. That is just beyond wrong.
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I just hope his wife doesn't manage to keep a lot of the money.

Silver Member Joined: Aug 17 2008 Posts: 938