carl0s

Harry Markopolos sent this letter to the US Securities & Exchange Commision in 2005, which was a follow up to one he sent in 1999. It's pretty blatant and to the point that Madoff was a scammer. His letter was basically ignored. One of the fund managers who invested his clients money ($1.4bn IIRC) with Madoff commited suicide when Madoff came clean just before Christmas that he was running a scam. Madoff had been running a Ponzi scheme for the last 14 years. He took billions of dollars from new investors, and used that money to pay the previous investors their "profits" which they thought he had been earning them from investing for them as a fund manager. It's a bit like a pyramid scheme, but more of a vertical line than a pyramid. It's affected banks all over the world (RBS, who I've invested in, have lost $400m I think), charities, general rich people like Hollywood people, and other investment funds whose fund managers thought they were privileged enough to be given the honour of having Bernard Madoff manage some of their client's money for them.

I searched the forum for "madoff" and got no results. Surely this has got to be the most amazing/shocking story ever? I'm utterly mesmerised by the whole thing and all the massive implications to the financial world. 50 frickin billion. All that profit that all these people and companies thought they had, the suicide of the fund manager, and Harry Markopolos' letter spelling it out years ago "bernie madoff is running the world's largest ponzi scheme", which was ignored. I'm constantly on bloomberg on my iPod touch reading about it. Nobody else find it interesting and think it's unbelievably significant/major? The missus just goes "oh"

I quite liked it.

I didn't think $1.45 -> $1.81 was such a big jump, but it's about 24%. If I multiple any of the figures I have in my September quote by 1.24, I end up with the now figures, so it's definitely unquestionably a result of the pound -> dollar exchange rate, which is been wrecked because of the low interest rates here, I think. Oh well.

I didn't think it'd be this obvious, but it makes sense really. Windows XP Pro OEM has been £79 + vat for as long as I can remember. Now it's £95 + VAT. Office 2007 SBE has increased from £116 to ~£155 Tape Backup drive (DLT V4) has gone from £370ish to £490ish. This is all from a quote that I did in September (£1 = $1.81 at the time, now £1 = $1.45). All this meddling by the government has screwed everything. What frikkin' good was a VAT reduction? That only helps buyers on the street, but doesn't help businesses at all. Businesses are suffering more now because imports are wrecked. On the positive side, Audi RS6 Saloon, 60,000 miles = £14k. My UK spec Supra was almost that price when I bought it. Has anybody else noticed things costing more?

It wouldn't bother me, but I know others have mileage worries so figured it might go cheap. Guess not.

That 200k UK Manual "one owner from new" is up to £8k now. I thought it might end up being a cheap car, was half tempted for a few grand.

I'm off to Spain in a few hours Was about 1.44 last time I went.

EB spares were always cheaper than Alfa for parts, wishbones and what not when I had my GTV.

but to be fair, if it's just disks and pads, why not just go to your local motor factors?

http://www.ebspares.co.uk/

You're welcome

http://www.css-networks.com/rti.mp3 I think it rates with Mark Knopfler's Going Home / Local Hero theme as my favourite uplifting music.

I have the album if you want an mp3...

I used some Meguires Paint Cleaner on mine. It's done wonders for the green stuff.

d'oh! I'm sure you'll be fine if you go for a motherboard with the same fakeraid chip, but it's never a good idea to stripe if you're worried about keeping your data and don't have a backup.

Is it really that cheap now?

Yes they are pretty much all fine. I used to use UK2's service occasionally (http://www.adial.co.uk), or I'd just use Freeserve and give everybody my username.

Here's a radical idea. You want better public transport, pay higher fares. Why should the drivers pay to support the non drivers?

I think I'm the same as you. I'm cautious, not particularly positive or negative, but I think the property market should sort itself out, and the government doesn't want that to happen, for good reasons sure. You're right with the capitalism stuff though. I bet the Russians are having a right laugh at us

I'm in the same boat but am not quite so sure and positive. What happens if there's very little interest paid on your savings, and inflation causes that money to be worth less and less as time goes on? Having said that, house prices are only dropping in price.. so maybe I'm talking rubbish.

Excellent. I'm happy for you. I could probably have worked around it most of the time, but not all the time, and would no doubt have been accidentally crossing it all the time, and refusing to do work in parts of Manchester.

Unanimous rejection. All 10 councils rejected the plans. Thank everybody for that. "This is the end of the road for congestion charging". I feel really positive now. Really happy. Thanks for voting everybody!

:d