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Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Le Samourai

Posted by on Tue, Dec 23, 2008 at 11:29 AM

In an earlier post, I argued that a difference had emerged between the financial deceivers of the crash that happened in 1929 and the financial deceivers of the crash that is happening now. That difference is in the hands.

That presence is Madoff. He as a breathing and heart-beating being. In our time, his hands are free from doing the one thing that, 90 years ago, the hands of an exposed deceiver would have done immediately: take their own life out of the hot spotlight of the scandal and leave the world with a cold corpse to denounce. What vanished in the Bush years was a code of honor with any real meat in it. Now we see that night and day is what separates the investment banker of the Bush age from the samurai of the Sengoku period
.
This argument might be true for investment bankers who are American but not, it seems, with those who are French.

Rene-Thierry Magon de la Villehuchet, a founder of the hedge fund Access International Advisors, was found dead early Tuesday in his office in Manhattan, the French business daily La Tribune reported on its Web site, after losing as much as $1.4 billion that had been invested with Bernard L. Madoff, the money manager accused of running a $50 billion Ponzi scheme. Mr. de la Villehuchet, 65, committed suicide, La Tribune said, citing a someone close to Mr. de la Villehuchet.

 

Comments (2) RSS

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1
The fun begins!
Posted by Sirkowski on December 23, 2008 at 12:01 PM
2
It was 80 years ago, not 90. LEARN TO DO MATH.
Posted by east coaster on December 23, 2008 at 1:25 PM

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