Bernie Madoff

Actor Robert De Niro delivered an outburst of anti-Trump vitriol just before the Saturday night debut on HBO of The Wizard of Lies, a movie in which he plays Bernie Madoff. He told USA Today that Madoff’s story still “resonates” thanks to President Trump and that while what Madoff “did was horrible and awful; monstrous,” Trump is worse than the Ponzi scheme criminal since he’s a “bad con artist”…

Many of you have probably seen the ABC miniseries, Madoff, about disgraced Wall Street investment manager Bernie Madoff who in reality ran a massive Ponzi scheme. How accurate was his portrayal by actor Richard Dreyfuss can be up for debate but what is not debatable, but now mostly forgotten, is that Madoff invested heavily in the campaigns of mostly Democrats. Just after the Madoff scandal broke…

After the closing bell on Friday, just in time for everyone to stop paying close attention, mortgage behemoth and ward of the state Fannie Mae ("Fan") released its fourth-quarter and full-year financial results. Its press release (PDF) informs us that its $74.4 billion loss in 2009 (inclusive of dividends paid to the government) followed a $58.8 billion loss in 2008. For those keeping score at…