Friday, January 23, 2009

The Great American Ponzi Scheme

The unique perspective of Investors Business Daily's Pulitzer Prize winning cartoonist Michael Ramirez is once again on the pulse of America in timely fashion.

Much of the media if focusing on the abhorrent theft of fund manager Bernie Madoff, and rightly so. The scope of his fraud, inclusive of many charities and high profile investors such as Larry King, Kevin Bacon, Norman Braman (former Philadelphia Eagles owner and car dealer), Morton Zuckerman (through investment fund) and The Royal Bank of Scotland, is mind boggling.

As incredible as this is, there is another giant ponzi scheme looking to burst, and President Bush has warned us about it and requested legislation to curtail it, of which he has got none from our do nothing Congress, before the ship has left the dock. Others, such as David Walker of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, have been sounding the alarms for quite some time.

CNBC's Jim Cramer takes a whack it. Lets see what he says:

Ladies and gentlemen, it is our own Social Security System. Estimates say about 2040 it will blow up and life as we know will never be the same. If you are under 40, I recommend you invest for retirement as if you will get nothing from the system. Caveat Emptor!

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