Today on my commute to work, I heard this report on NPR’s Morning Edition about a Bernie Madoff piggy bank that keeps your money. Evidently it has a fake plug in the bottom and everything.
If you’re interested, you might still be able to get one on eBay (read more on MSNBC).
While it’s probably useless to spout off about how I think Bernie Madoff may even deserve to his face plastered on urinal mats and toliet paper (not my idea), I do think that it’s worthwhile to say that there are many of us still working our tails off to make sure that business is conducted ethically, transparently, and fairly.
Sure ethical, transparent, and fair doesn’t always mean warm fuzzies. In fact when I look at the Dow most days I feel like I’ve swallowed a bag of wet mice.
That said, today wasn’t bad. Thanks to Vikram Pandit (and his company Citi) whose memo about Citi’s profitability put the Street into rally mode.
It’s strange to me how a memo can have such a dramatic effect. Maybe it’s because we trust Vikram Pandit. Or mabye it’s because we’re just desperate for some good news. Either way, we have no idea if our pal Vikram is telling the truth or feeding us a line (granted, not a line of Madoff proportions).
So maybe we should all just suppress that bag of wet mice in all of our stomachs. Maybe we should rely on what we can count on, like real data. And maybe we should seek to leverage that data ethically, transparently, and with fairness. And maybe we should turn our tickers off for a couple days…
Eh. It’s just a thought.
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Tags: Bernie Madoff, Citi, Dow, ethics, progress
