PONZII SCHEME DISCUSSION due at NOON

NEW YOR Wall Street swindler BernardMadoffsaid in a magazine interview published Sunday that new regulatory reform enacted after the recent national financial crisis is laughable and that the federal government is aPonziischeme.

"The whole new regulatory reform is a joke,"Madoffsaid during a telephone interview with New York magazine in which he discussed his disdain for the financial industry and for its regulators.

The interview was published on the magazine's website..

Madoffdid an earlier New York Times interview in which he accused banks and hedge funds of being "complicit" in hisPonziischeme to fleece people out of billions of dollars. He said they failed to scrutinize the discrepancies between his regulatory filings and other information(Links to an external site.)

He said in the New Yor magazine interview the Securities and Exchange Commission "looks terrible in this thing," and he said the "whole government is aPonziischeme."

APonzii, or pyramid, scheme is a scam in which people are persuaded to invest through promises of unusually high returns, with early investors paid their returns out of money put in by later investors.

A court-appointed trustee seeking to recover money on behalf of the victims ofMadoff's massivePonziischeme has filed a lawsuit against his primary banker,JPMorganChase, alleging the bank had suspected something wrong in his operation for years. The bank has denied any wrongdoing.

Madoffis serving a 140-year prison sentence inButner, North Carolina, after pleading guilty in 2008 to fraud charges.

Choose a side and support it:(1)I agree withMadoffthat the government is aPonziischeme (if you agree with this, explain specifically WHY you believe the US government is aPonziischeme).

or

(2) I disagree withMadoff;he is trying to take the blame off of his wrong doings (Please explain specifically WHY you disagree).

This is a great assignment for RAC.If you are seeking full credit, please be sure to define a Ponziischeme.