I don’t know about you folks, but having grown up in a very small town Upstate, then living in NYC—I would take the really small town anytime.  The price of a house in Butner, NC would barely buy a studio apartment here.  This slideshow made me yearn for the simpler life—yard sales, dinner at 5PM, affordable housing, sigh.

Now, Ruth Madoff—I think she is just as guilty as her husband.  What wife gives lavish parties at several homes not wondering, "Gosh, honey, where did we get all this money?  My paycheck didn’t cover this…this is just too much to be legal. …"  Get used to the simple life, Ruth.  Except for the husband-in-prison part, I envy her trek to NC.

The family should have known there was too much wealth from the source of how they were making money. They should have investigated. Even someone outside their firm knew their success rate was way too high without investigating. The Madoff sons went to college. They studied statistics.

As to the appropriateness of making fun of prisons, well prisons aren’t supposed to be "comfortable." They’re made for suffering and the slideshow shows it humorously. Nothing wrong with that for those of us with a sense of humor of the dark nature where it concerns bad people. There is no reason to feel sorry for prisoners who committed crimes. Madoff destroyed hundreds of thousands of lives. Not just rich people, but poor people who worked for them and many charities are being brought down too because rich people can no longer contribute.

Does there seem to be some sort of obsession on this site about people in jail?

Polanski?…Madoff?…what’s next?…a piece on poor old Manson serving out that lonnnng sentence?

How about some articles that don’t seem to assume we all have cotton candy for brains?…..

Although I despise Bernie Madoff I feel sorry for his wife. I have known many women of her generation, including highly educated women, who have absolutely no idea of what their husbands do for a living or how they make their money. Usually they are not interested as long as the money keeps coming in and they can do what they want with it. Many of them deserve it when "the walls come tumbling down" because of their initial lack of interest in how the money was made, but some were innocents and just did what they were told.

I also have to say that to a certain extent the greed of the victims assisted Madoff. When interest rates are running 5-10% and someone offers you a 20-25% return you’ve got to know something’s fishy. I’ve been offered deals like that and always turned them down. Most of the time I was proven right.

Well not everyone was making 20-25% return. But it sounded good in the media. Trial by media. The great American tradition.  Most of the average investors who were totally wiped out were making about 10% at most. The other crooks were making 20-25%. 

It is important to remember that Madoff had been handling investments since the 1960s. And had a stellar reputation.  Which no one really had any reason to question although, of course, the government did and didn’t so to speak. That alone is the biggest question. Why didn’t the SEC do something about the various complaints? They did NOTHING.

Much of this has been covered up and will continue to be covered up. But apparently everyone really did have legitimate investments until somewhere in the mid 90s. And then suddenly the computer program took over.  That’s the part that has everyone mystified.  His sons and everyone else would sit at desks buying and selling when in fact they were not. The computer program just led them to believe they were., And it spit out statements every month detailing the accounts for the clients. Without doubt the biggest con artist that ever lived. And also apparently a genius. May he live another 150 years and drop dead on his way out of prison. I could care less about the crooks who lost a little. I do care about the innocent investors who lost everything. And are working as greeters as Wal-Mart.  Listening to people talk about how stupid they were. May those people have a Bernie Madoff in their future so they know what it is like. 

I believe with every fiber of my being she was complicit. And I find it disturbing that she is not serving any time alongside her lying, cheating, low morals of a man, husband. And the fact that she will be "standing by her man" by way of staying married to him is disgusting.

Not only did he destroy the lives of countless people, not just financially, (keep in mind there are those that have committed suicide behind this story) but he also cheated on her. Is his mistress lying? Well let’s put it this way, she gave a very detailed and specific aspect to his sexual arousal that only his wife Ruth would know. So if it is true, say no more, he cheated.

She worked in the office in the early days and yet she saw not one hint of impropriety. Really? Or could it be she saw it but turned the other way just as long as she was receiving the fruits of his deceit. I dare say an overwhelming majority of people who blog on this site survive every year on FAR LESS than 2.5 Million dollars. It may not be her norm, but it will be now….get used to it Ruth.

Everything in life happens for a reason….everything. The good, the bad and the ugly. And sometimes it happens to teach us a life lesson. On the other side of this embarrassing chapter in her life may be a huge humility lesson just waiting for her. A lesson in being humble. A lesson in accepting people, places and things for what they are and not placing extreme value on them.