Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

January 8, 2009

Bernard Madoff, former chairman of the NASDAQ stock exchange, allegedly operated a $50 billion pyramid scheme that victimized many of the wealthiest people and institutions in the world.

Many supposed economic experts insist that Madoff?s con game is an indictment of unrestricted free-market capitalism. But fraud of this kind is the predictable result of a Federal Reserve-engineered speculative bubble, in which money is loose, credit is cheap, and politically motivated regulators ignore fraud and corruption.

Writing in the New York Times, analysts Michael Lewis and David Einhorn point out that investment counselor Harry Markopolos tried for nearly a decade to warn the Securities and Exchange Commission that Madoff was running an immense con game. The SEC ignored Markopolos?s documentation and gave Madoff a clean bill of health.

Rather than indicting the free market, Madoff? swindle underscores the need to abolish the Fed and de-politicize the investment markets.

Let us take back the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.