Trump, Madoff and Greed

I don't like Donald Trump. He's not a nice person. But he's a darn shrewd business man and has done extraordinarily well in the hotly contested New York real-estate market because people trust him and he delivers.

So when "the Donald" calls a guy like Bernard Maddoff (Investment scammer who bilked nearly $50 billion from people) a "scumbag" I think that he's right on the money.

"The Donald" also had a word of warning. When asked about people who had placed 100% of their investments, even mortgaged their houses to give Madoff more money to "invest", he had one word to describe them; "Greed". When asked what he thought of people that had completely trusted Madoff with 100% of their assets, he responded with "But when you think of a person putting up 100 percent of their net worth and even mortgaging their house, even though they had a lot of cash -- mortgaging their house to get more cash to this guy." and "The word is very simple. It's a word called "greed." Greed. That's all it is. People were greedy."

Yup.

Greed can inspire and motivate. But like so many other things in our lives, unbridled and uncontrolled greed will bring disaster.

Update On March 12, 2009, Mr. Madoff plead guilty to the charges of running a "Ponzi" scheme and bilking thousands of investors out of billions. There is a very real chance that he will be sentenced to enough time in prison that once he goes in, he will never experience freedom again. OK by me.