{"id":515,"date":"2014-06-06T23:43:14","date_gmt":"2014-06-06T23:43:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/facebooklet.ca\/blog2\/?p=515"},"modified":"2018-06-14T21:00:17","modified_gmt":"2018-06-14T21:00:17","slug":"june-614-bernie-madoff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/facebooklet.ca\/blog2\/june-614-bernie-madoff\/","title":{"rendered":"June 6\/14: Bernie Madoff"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rolling into June, it’s time for another post.\u00a0 Bernie’s been on my mind ever since the news broke around ’08 or ’09.<\/h1>\n

How have you been?\u00a0 The weather’s been summery here for weeks now.\u00a0 The kids’ piano season ended with their recital last Sunday; they’re in summer swimming now at the outdoor pool.\u00a0 School continues, but not for long.<\/p>\n

The yard needs attention that I can’t give it right now.\u00a0 My business is academic; this is a busy time of year.\u00a0 I even have a lawn mower to fix when I get a chance to go find the part.\u00a0 Pas aujourd’hui.\u00a0 However, over the last couple of weeks, I have managed some mowing, some weeding, and even some liming.\u00a0 With everything taking off so fast, I just can’t keep up.<\/p>\n

I guess my older son has moved up into competitive dance starting this summer.\u00a0 He sure wanted it, so I’m happy for him.<\/p>\n

We still work around the demands of my wife’s college courses.\u00a0 However, courses are good things, in my opinion:)<\/p>\n

Bernie Madoff caught my attention when North America seemed to be going down the tubes back in ’08-’09.\u00a0 Why he merited so much attention is a question I ask today, but I guess he made a good story.<\/p>\n

Madoff started an investment firm in 1960 with money he’d earned lifeguarding and installing sprinklers.\u00a0 His firm was a pioneer in at least a couple of different aspects.\u00a0 According to him, the questionable activities did not begin until the early ’90s.\u00a0 By ’99, there were doubts about the legitimacy of some of Madoff’s claims.\u00a0 Possibly because he was well connected and trusted, many people preferred to give him the benefit of the doubt.\u00a0 In the end, they probably didn’t help him much by doing so.<\/p>\n

The phrase Too Good to be True <\/em>(Arvedlund, ’09) has been related to the hopes of Madoff’s investors.\u00a0 Obviously, such a comment makes sense.\u00a0 However, there is a more philosophical point of view:\u00a0 I’ve heard it estimated, from a fairly good source, that one in ten adults in North America need never work again in their lives.\u00a0 Such people are called “independently wealthy.”\u00a0 To a struggling member of the working class, being independently wealthy is probably “too good to be true.”\u00a0 Yet, it is<\/em> true, for some.<\/p>\n

In the Old World, the acceptance that some people have, while others don’t, is also old.\u00a0 Yet, in North America, there endures the ethic that anyone<\/em> can be rich.\u00a0 Indeed, some people enter life poor, but accomplish wealth.\u00a0 From the wholesome perspective of the American dream, is anything “too good to be true?”<\/p>\n

Here’s Bernie.
\n\"Bernie<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rolling into June, it’s time for another post.\u00a0 Bernie’s been on my mind ever since the news broke around ’08 or ’09. How have you been?\u00a0 The weather’s been summery here for weeks now.\u00a0 The kids’ piano season ended with their recital last Sunday; they’re in summer swimming now at the outdoor pool.\u00a0 School continues, … Continue reading “June 6\/14: Bernie Madoff”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[20],"class_list":["post-515","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daily-posts","tag-bernie-madoff"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/facebooklet.ca\/blog2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/515","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/facebooklet.ca\/blog2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/facebooklet.ca\/blog2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/facebooklet.ca\/blog2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/facebooklet.ca\/blog2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=515"}],"version-history":[{"count":27,"href":"https:\/\/facebooklet.ca\/blog2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/515\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":897,"href":"https:\/\/facebooklet.ca\/blog2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/515\/revisions\/897"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/facebooklet.ca\/blog2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=515"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/facebooklet.ca\/blog2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=515"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/facebooklet.ca\/blog2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=515"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}