Suckered Madoff investors now seek taxpayer bailout.
Onthe subway ride Thursday morning to the federal courthouse — where Iwatched Bernard L. Madoff plead guilty and get hauled off to prison — Icame across this quote in Vanity Fair’s big Madoff article. It wasuttered by a woman named Ronnie Sue Ambrosino, a Madoff victim:
“Everybody knows we’re penniless and can’t pay our mortgage,” shesaid. “That’s not what people need to hear anymore. They need to hearthe next step. Write about how the government let this happen and howthe government is letting the victims down. I need people to know thatthe S.E.C. failed miserably for at least 10 years, if not more, thatthey were warned, and they didn’t stop the devil from doing his deed. Ineed people to know that S.I.P.C. has taken more than a month to get aclaim form out to help the victims. I need people to know that theI.R.S. has been collecting taxes on phantom income for at least 10years. I need people to know that Bernard Madoff has given money tosenators across the country in their campaign funds. So you tell me howour government is helping support the victims, or are they supportingthe victims.”My column this weekasks whether the government should, in fact, be “supporting thevictims.” Without diminishing the depravity of Mr. Madoff’s scheme, I’mhaving a hard time with that idea. A lot of rich, smart people whoshould have known better handed over their fortune to someone whoturned out to be a crook. He seduced them, and in allowing themselvesto be seduced, they violated the first rule of investing — diversify —because they thought they were getting a special deal that wasunavailable to the rest of us. And now that it turns out that decisionwas as wrong-headed as a thing can be — and it has cost them a fortune— they want a government bailout? They’re kidding, right? No, they’renot.