WTF!!!

"Bernard Madoff, who was arrested on Thursday, has been charged with fraud in what is being described as one of the biggest-ever such cases.

According to the US Attorney's criminal complaint filed in court, Mr Madoff told at least three employees on Wednesday that the hedge fund business - which served up to 25 clients and had $17.1bn under management - was a fraud and had been insolvent for years.

If found guilty, US prosecutors say he could face up to 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $5m. "

Okay, so I just want to make sure that I understand the logic behind this. According to this article, a person can steal $10,000 and then only have to pay back $1? This is absolutely absurd. I cannot even believe that this guy is getting off so easily. His actions have more than an immediate effect on the stock market, but they will also have a delayed effect. All of the people who were starting to get comfortable with the idea of investing again, are going to be scared shitless. This man is supposed to be someone that we can trust, he was the chairman of the Nasdaq stock exchange. This just really upsets me. If we cannot trust these people, who can we trust. Additionally, the United States needs to maintain our free market system that our country is based off of, and with incidents like this, it is going to be increasingly harder for the new administration to not crack down and make more and more regulations. I hope that we can get all of this out into the open now so we can finally mover forward!

Family

It's funny how things change. When young, one looks forward to growing up and moving away, off to a big city of wherever their imagination takes them. Now, living in the "big city", the idea of going home to the valley where everything is simple and quiet sounds so appealing. The thought of being with family and good friends simply makes me smile. It just goes to show that it's the little things in life that makes one happy. So even if you are young, don't take being at home with family and friends for granted, because later in life those simple things are what you will look forward to!