Is this what Milton Friedman had in mind when he praised the efficiency, viability and profitability of a ‘free market’?  Apparently so, because this is what the system wrought.

Frankly, it seems to me that the free market operates and gives license to ponzi schemes possible on a grand scale.

Just fyi, I posted this to the What Made Maddoff do it thread, just because we were talking about this same thing. When did all of the money go?

Folktruther, Ed, all,

This is what I was talking about that I’d first read a couple of weeks ago. This is the surprising follow-up to it, and it is a surprise. I expected them (the Swiss) to find a way to uphold this long, long, tradition of providing these ways for the wealthiest of the world to hide their money.
So, this is a surprising development.

A Swiss Bank Is Set to Open Its Secret Files
Published: February 18, 2009

“In the hush-hush world of Swiss banking, the unthinkable is happening: secrets are spilling into the open.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/19/business/worldbusiness/19ubs.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

•  “In a striking admission, UBS said that from 2000 through 2007, some of its private bankers and managers had “participated in a scheme to defraud the United States” and the I.R.S. by helping American clients set up and conceal offshore accounts. The schemeinvolved falsifying or not properly obtaining or filing certain tax forms required of both the bank and its clients.”

•  “UBS had fiercely resisted turning over the names, even after some executives were indicted and implicated in the offshore private banking business. Swiss law distinguishes broadly between tax avoidance, tax evasion and tax fraud. Unlike in the United States, tax evasion is not a criminal offense under Swiss law.”

Then, this..
•  “The move by UBS to settle the case, on the eve of a Senate subcommittee hearing next Tuesday on the matter, signals how close the bank came to being indicted for not cooperating with prosecutors. Indictment is a near-certain death knell for corporations.”

I believe the new admin leaned on ‘em, and hard. They obviously already had all of the evidence, (or a lot of it) and yeah…and indictment would have spelled the end of UBS.

Anyway, do ya think any of Maddof’s billions are among these accounts to be revealed.

How about this new guy?

Round one.  Keep going people, America is right behind you, and I think most of us have our pitchforks sharpened by now.

Won’t it be fun when they start rounding up local crooks?  I think I’ll stuff ten bucks away and order a pizza and relish the moment extravagantly….. if I can float it, maybe I’ll pick up my favorite bottle of “chateau de lessthantendollars”.

Obama needs 1000 more SEC investigators.

Asset seizure and hard time in a fedmax prison.