Of greed and madness...

The financial industry is hit by another US scandal with the fallout felt as far as Asia..all thanks to Bernard Madoff. The whole scam sounds rather simplistic...giving high returns for investments. While hindsight may point to the many red flags that should have sprung up when his company was able to pay high yields during times when other investment houses were struggle, yet somehow this was overlooked. The answer is perhaps as simple as the whole scam - it is an classic example of "greed". When everyone was attracted to the returns, no one paused to ask questions. We learnt since early childhood never to take sweets from strangers and we should be on guard and ask questions like: what's he up to? But once kids become grown up, they forgotten all the basic rules until it's bingo! Whose to be blamed? Fingers are pointed at the regulators and at everyone else, except the CEO, CFO, and auditors of those firms who had invested in Madoff. When things get too good, invariably questions must be raised even at the risk of being labeled as being too faint hearted, or as one who is risk aversed.

Talking about risk, it must be a real shocker for outgoing US President George W Bush when he was bushwhacked by an Iraqi journalist who threw not one but two shoes at him during a press conference. Apparently this journalsit is mad with the President and is making his feelings known to the whole. Isn't it a hair-raising experience to see how someone can throw two shoes before being manhandled. Imagine if it was a knife or a gun, two or three shots would have been fired before the attacker was pinned down. Doesn't that raise the question: where were the security men? Did they respond too slowly? Were they stationed at the wrong place? Was the President's bodyguard too slow in rushing up to him to protect him? The video showed someone going to the President who gesticulated that he was fine...but that was only after the assilant had thrown two shoes at the President. Where was all the President's men?