Madoff

I read the guy's name in a dozen articles before I heard it pronounced on NPR this morning. Now that I know the pronunciation I can't believe none of the articles were titled "Madoff Made Off With Billions."

So I plugged that exact phrase into Google and found that some articles (just not the ones I read) were in fact titled just that. I guess I don't have to give up faith in headline writers.

I also can't stop worrying about all the 401ks in this country. I won't lose sleep over my own- it's simply not enough money to fret over- but until now I honestly didn't worry that much about retirement fund crooks. Mismanagement, stupidity, stuff like that, sure, but not fraud.

But Madoff apparently swindled some fairly wise investors, and he seems to have done it with ease for quite a long time. It makes me wonder how much of the rest of our money is invested in smoke and mirrors. It might be a small percentage, but I bet the sum total is substantial.