The Madoff Scale

On December 10, 2008, Bernard Madoff admitted his investment fund was an illusion and a fraud. The illusion was the $65,000,000,000 that vanished into the thin air from whence it came. Stewart Dougherty, the inferential analyst I've cited favorably in this blog, says that "Compared to current fiscal, monetary, economic and financial reality in the United States, Madoff's losses were modest, even quaint."

How modest? How quaint?

The USA's fiscal year 2009 federal loss (which is euphemized for the masses by the term "deficit," which sounds technical, econometric, and not nearly as bad as what it really is, a loss) will exceed $2,000,000,000,000.00, more than 30 times Madoff's $65,000,000,000.00 loss. Keep in mind that it took Madoff a professional lifetime to lose that money; the United States will lose $2 trillion in just one year, and according to official budget projections will continue losing hundreds of billions more, annually, for decades to come. . .

The cost of the government's financial-crisis-related bailouts and guarantees currently exceeds $13,500,000,000000.00, which is 200 times larger than the Madoff scandal. And the nation's unfunded contingent liabilities, for programs such as Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, government pensions and the like stand at $75,000,000,000,000.00, 1,150 times larger than Madoff's fraud. They should let Madoff out of jail and put him in charge of the Treasury. . .

According to the CBO, over the next SEVENTY fiscal years, the federal government will NEVER have a surplus. Rather, the United States will continue to suffer massive, escalating, multi-hundred billion dollar losses ("deficits") each and every year for the next SEVEN DECADES, which is when the budget projection stops. . . Apparently, America is headed back to the Stone Age, thanks to our profligate politicians and corrupt financial elite.