FILM ARCHIVES Fossils still bite: Bernie Madoff and prehistoric snakes
by Ward Harkavy
Good for the New York Times! Always trying to take a broad view (even when one doesn’t exist, as Jack Shafer often points out), the paper weighs in on how the plight of Bernie Madoff‘s white-haired victims gives us valuable insights about the global meltdown with this morning’s “Fossils of Largest Snake Give Hint of Hot Earth.”
Good info that the “prehistoric snake” was “a giant relative of today’s boa constrictors.” The elderly Madoff wasn’t the first, nor will he be the last, snake to swallow your money. Wall Street is really is a dangerous place, even for celebrities — see the latest list of Madoff’s victims.
Madoff whistleblower Harry Markopolos‘s testimony yesterday on Capitol wasn’t quite as colorful, but the bookish-yet-tigerish accountant was pretty damn intense, as I previously noted.
Among other fascinating details, Markopolos told the dazed House members that he planned to deliver to the SEC today a “mini-Madoff.” The agency is sure to accept this silver platter with respect and care.
President Barack Obama, on the other hand, is showing me no respect with his $500,000 limit on CEO pay ( VIDEO). To get a bailout, I have to limit my pay? I don’t think so.
While I wait for my manservant to dress me, I’ll also point out that the Times story “Daschle’s Ambitions Collided, Friends Say” does little more than say what I already said yesterday. The Times was more polite.
Please click on these items. Pretty please…
NO PARTICULAR ORDER:
CNN: ‘Toyota shuts down all but one assembly line’
N.Y. Post: ‘BANKS’ MONEY WELL SPENT’
New York’s top banking firms went on a multimillion lobbying spree late last year — just as the feds were crafting a $700 billion rescue plan for struggling banks.
The banks got an extraordinary return on their investment, as they got federal cash injections that were thousands of times larger than what they spent trying to influence Congress and the administration – which doled out the cash.
Newsday: ‘Drilling leases on Utah land scrapped’
N.Y. Daily News: ‘Twins’ rage: Coward could never face our father’
N.Y. Times: ‘Senate Adds Homebuyer Tax Credit to Stimulus Bill’
N.Y. Post: ‘O WARNS OF “CATA$TROPHE”: URGES STIMULUS OK AMID MOUNTING RESISTANCE’
Wall Street Journal: ‘Forget Golf: Street Junkets Get Junked’
CNN: ‘Overseer calls for bank bailout makeover’
Financial Crisis Update: ‘SEC Official Endorses Central Counterparty for Credit Default Swaps as Global Consensus Grows’
N.Y. Times: ‘Daschle’s Ambitions Collided, Friends Say’
N.Y. Times: ‘Science Found Wanting in Nation’s Crime Labs’
N.Y. Post: ‘ON WALL STREET: WHO COULD LIVE ON $500K?’
Wall Street Journal: ‘Study: 9/11 Lung Problems Persist Years Later’
N.Y. Daily News: ‘Cops on hunt for suspect in brutal rape in East Harlem laundromat’
N.Y. Times: ‘Boo Hoo in the Boardroom’
Wall Street Journal: ‘Faith-Based Program Gets Wider Focus’
When President Barack Obama launches his version of the faith-based initiative Thursday, he will expand the mission to include abortion reduction and outreach to the Muslim world. He will also try to avoid the thorniest constitutional issues that beset the program for years under his predecessor.
Mr. Obama’s approach to the federal faith office reflects his search for common ground on contentious social issues, and his willingness to dial back some of his campaign positions.
N.Y. Post: ‘AMAZIN’ AMBUSH! SHAMSKY’S ANGRY EX POUNCES’
N.Y. Daily News: ‘Cheney: Beware nukes’
Wall Street Journal: ‘Gaza’s Isolation Slows Rebuilding Efforts’
N.Y. Times: ‘Societal Cost of Meth Use Is Gauged in New Study’
Bloomberg: ‘”Failed” Wall Street Forces Biggest Rewrite of Rules’
N.Y. Post: ‘PLAYBOY’S ROCKER SCRIBE RIFFS ON STREET ROGUES’
N.Y. Daily News: ‘The great Big Apple sports broadcaster debate’
N.Y. Post: ‘SMOKING FEATHER OF FLIGHT 1549’
N.Y. Daily News: ‘Lehman judge charged with hitting wife gets lawyer’
A federal judge charged with slapping his wife hired a big shot defense attorney as he faces a misdemeanor charge that could land him in the clink.
James Peck, 63, the bankruptcy judge overseeing the breakup of Lehman Brothers, hired Barry Bohrer, a prominent criminal defense lawyer whose clients have included Sam Israel, the hedge fund swindler who went on the lam last summer after faking his own suicide to avoid a 20-year jail term.
Peck, who was briefly assigned to handle the Bernard Madoff bankruptcy until he recused himself in December, told cops when they came to his Park Ave. apartment Saturday afternoon that “I was defending myself.”
He said his wife, Judith Peck, 64, was late in returning to the city from their home in the Hamptons and then they argued over a ladder that she had put in his closet.
“I was moving the ladder out. She slapped me in the face,” he told cops. “I put the ladder down and slapped her back. We slapped each other back and forth.”
Bloomberg: ‘Soros Imitators Reap Riches in Financial Whirlwind on Global Macro Funds’
Forbes: ‘Buffett Sinks Billions Into Swiss Re’
‘Sandy Koufax, John Malkovich among Bernie Madoff victims as court filings are released’
From the Daily News:
Boston Globe: ‘The whistleblower: Dogged pursuer of Madoff wary of fame’
U.S. News & World Report: ‘5 Things to Know About Whistleblowing’
Bloomberg: ‘Madoff Said Only Brother Could Do Audit, Witness Tells Congress’
Whistleblower Lawyer Blog: ‘Whistleblower Protections Added to Economic Stimulus Bill Passed by House’
N.Y. Daily News: ‘Photo gallery: Madoff’s victims’
N.Y. Post: ‘DIVORCEE BIDS TO ‘EX’-TEND MADOFF PAIN’
Whistleblower Lawyer Blog: ‘Hedge Funds Face Regulation & Oversight by SEC–Will There Be Another Compliance Tool in Addition to IRS Whistleblower Program?’
Fortune: ‘Did Madoff’s feeder fund shop for friendly audits?’
AP: ‘[Massachusetts] pension fund fires 2 managers’
N.Y. Daily News: ‘$1B of swindled funds uncovered, Madoff’s alleged vics to get paid “in the near future”‘
N.Y. Post: ‘HOW SEC BOZOS BLEW IT: WHISTLEBLOWER RIPS DO-NOTHING FED “FLEAS”‘
N.Y. Daily News: ‘Car dealer hopes to say, “I Madoff with 100G”‘
N.Y. Daily News: ‘GM Omar Minaya says Mets will not go after Manny Ramirez’