These are the best architects of Ponzi schemes. Madoff is a piker. FDR started the trend with social security. Remember a Ponzi scheme is based on the FIFO inventory model.
I’m sure the early investors with Madoff got their money back. Not the principal, but the total investment. With guaranteed 10% a year returns, if they were in 7 years they were OK, assuming they didn’t dump the returns on the investment back in the pot or add more in later years. As long as old Bernie had cash coming in he could pay the freight on the interest. Only when the cash coming in dried up did the house of cards fall.
FDR’s big Ponzi, social security is still bringing enough in the front door to cover expenses. But, as baby boomers reach age 62, that house of cards will crumble unless the government steps up the front load. That means tax increases, big ones.
LBJ was no fool. He jumped on the Ponzi plan and started Medicare and Medicaid. This is bigger than social security. Payouts come sooner and less goes in the pot. States bear some of the cost, so they have financial pain from Medicaid.
Now comes Obama. He wants a piece of the Ponzi action. He sees that both FDR and LBJ are blameless for their actions. The both got out of office and out of this world before any cards fell. He can do the same. The FIFO inventory will carry him through, give him and government yet more power over the public, and buy votes. Damn the consequences down the road. Live well and reap the benefits just like old Bernie Madoff did for all those years.
Timing is everything for the Ponzi men. The cards on the Obama National Health Insurance piled on top of social security, medicare, and medicaid, will not fall until our grand kids are adults. When these cards topple, the country may topple with them. Sorry, grand kids, we needed the money now and it’s your jobs to pick the cards up and fix them. If you can.
What FDR, LBJ, and BHO are doing is no less illegal than what Bernie Madoff did. If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, it must be a Ponzi scheme.
