As long as the SIPC rules are not changed as a special accommodation for Bernie Madoff investors with powerful connections, I think this is actually a play with a satisfactory ending. People who were greedy – planning to get something for nothing – will pay a high price. It’s a rough but fair form of justice.
So far, we’ve had nothing but examples of people who planned to get something for nothing using some scheme, and then got bailed out so they didn’t have to bear their full share of the loss when the scheme failed.
There are stories in the media about sympathetic “little people” who lost all to Bernie Madoff’s scam. But most of the money lost came from very well-off people, and most of the investors had many other investments. Also, Bernie Madoff’s fund was open only to sophisticated and wealthy investors, the people allowed by the SEC to invest in hedge funds. Anyone who got in who was unsophisticated or poor was ‘sneaking in’ when they shouldn’t have. If someone sneaks into a vat of acid at the local factory who doesn’t work there, their relatives can’t (or shouldn’t) hold others liable for the consequences.
