150 Years
Jun 30, 2009
Posted by Jody Eisenman | Filed under Uncategorized
was the sentence handed down to Bernie Madoff in New York this morning. While some of the victims cheered, I think most are happy justice is served, but it still doesn’t get them their funds back. What I found more interesting was the situation with the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC). The SEC has admitted that they screwed up, and I know of at least one lawsuit that is seeking redress directly from the Commission. There is no point in suing Madoff, as all his assets are either frozen or forfeited. I’m not sure how this agency, which is charged with oversight of the financial markets, could not possibly figure out that a man who was managing billions of dollars for over 20 years did not execute a single trade. It is also curious how the traders at Madoff’s firm did not realize what was going on. After all, what exactly did they trade? If Madoff had given them, say, a few million to trade, wouldn’t they have eventually inquired as to who was trading the bulk of the portfolio? Also, what were his sons’ role in all this? Of course, the question everyone wants the answer to is where the money actually went. I wonder when, if ever, will we get the answers to these questions.
Meanwhile, the stock market has started to climb again. After failing to close above 950 earlier this month, the S and P 500 retreated back to the 890 level last week. We are now back to 927, and another assault on 950 may come in this abbreviated trading week. The VIX, which is a measure of volatility that I discussed last year, has now dropped to around 25, which is its’ lowest level since the pre-Lehman bankruptcy. A drop in the index is generally an indication that a sense of clam is coming back into the markets. The index hit almost 90 last October.
