Review: No One Would Listen

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Author: Harry Markopolos

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons Inc.

ISBN: 978-0-470-55373-2

After reading Harry Markopolos's No One Would Listen, I had to shake my head in disbelief and mutter the old adage. "there's none so blind as those who will not see." Markopolos is a Chartered Financial Analyst and Certified Fraud Examiner and No One Would Listen is the complete story of how the SEC would not listen to him and his team. As result and unfortunately, they failed to stop the greatest financial crime in history, the Bernard Madoff catastrophe.

Over a nine year period Markopolos and three colleagues tried to get the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) to investigate Madoff, the mastermind behind this unbelievable Ponzi scheme. Unfortunately, due to incompetency, stupidity, and laziness, and even after Markopolos presented five separate submissions to the SEC with dozens of pages of incriminating evidence showing Madoff to be a fraud, nothing was done. You are probably asking how is this possible where a government agency is set up to protect investors and it turns out to be a complete sham and joke, costing thousands of investors their life savings to the tune of approximately five-five billion dollars? Moreover, what about the feeder funds that fed Madoff`s Ponzi scheme? Why didn't they conduct due diligence? Did they know it was a fraud and swept it under the rug in exchange for the huge commissions they were earning from Madoff as well as from their clients?

Markopolos first encountered Bernie Madoff when he and his team tried to emulate Madoff's phenomenal rate of return- a product that was producing one percent per month. After taking apart and analyzing Madoff's strategy, they concluded that it was impossible and that in reality it had to be a fraud. As he states: "We weren't looking for a crime; we simply wanted to see how he made his numbers dance." When Markopolos investigated further with interviews he conducted with various fund managers and others, his initial assessment and feeling was confirmed.

A startling and unbelievable discovery was when investment manager, Thierry de la Villehuchet, (who had later committed suicide), told Markopolos that Madoff could never be a fraud and to prove his point he alluded that he used a handwriting analyst as part of his company's due diligence procedures. We are not quite sure if in fact he did analyze Madoff's signature. However, the underlying theme was the common consensus among all of these mavens that after all Madoff was among the most powerful and respected men on Wall Street. He was the founder and operator of an extremely successful broker-dealer firm. How could it be possible that he was perpetuating such a blatant scam involving billions of dollars he took in from investors living all over the world? What is really amazing is that everyone wanted to do business with Madoff but nobody would own up that they were doing business with him. As Markopolos states: "It was as if he had walked through Times Square naked in the middle of a summer afternoon and no one admitted seeing him." Even more disturbing was that Markopolos and his team were not the only ones who discovered the fraud but they and perhaps one or two others were the only ones who reported it to the SEC. Even after articles about Madoff appeared in some reputable financial publications, nothing was done.

The subtitle of No One Would Listen is appropriately called A True Financial Thriller, and as you can see from the above, it certainly is, only it is a very sad story when you consider the billions of dollars that were not only lost by individuals that trusted their financial advisers to perform due diligence and the SEC to protect them, but also the dozens of charitable organizations, where millions of dollars vanished. However, one positive outcome of the Madoff debacle was that Markopolos was influential in having legislators listen to his advice concerning a complete overhauling of the SEC and we only hope that they will adopt many of his ideas that he lists at the end of the book.

No One Would Listen should be required reading for anyone who is directly or indirectly connected to the financial industry and this includes individual investors that invest in all kinds of financial products without really understanding what they are all about. This is not to say that every financial adviser is corrupt or doesn't care about his or her clients, however, to keep them on their toes, there is no harm in thoroughly questioning them when they try to sell you a particular financial product. And if you don't understand the product, don't invest in it.

To read Norm's Interview with Harry Markopolos click the following link: http://goo.gl/2z7l9

Norm Goldman is the Publisher & Editor of Bookpleasures.com and a top 500 Amazon reviewer. Bookpleasures has been in existence since 2002 and has posted over 5000 reviews and over 650 author interviews. In addition to the complimentary reviews offered by bookpleasures' reviewers, Norm also offers his own personalized Priority, Fast Track Quick Review that you can find out more about by clicking on:

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Radicals For Capitalism - A History of Libertarianism

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A fascinating look at the history of the uniquely American political philosophy of Libertarianism, Radicals for Capitalism is a richly rewarding book on the beginnings of the Libertarian movement and some of its founding members and supporters. Brian Doherty does an excellent job in writing a compelling history of the Libertarian movement.

For anyone with an interest in small government politics this book is not only informative but entertaining. While most people captivated by the Libertarian movement have only a cursory knowledge of its beginnings, reading this book will flesh out your knowledge in an engaging and informative way. Ayn Rand? Everyone has heard of her, but how about Isabel Paterson and Rose Wilder Lane? All three women can be said to have lain the roots for the libertarian movement of today.

All three published important works in 1943, pre-dating Hayeks Road to Serfdom and other seminal Libertarian works. Rands The Fountainhead, Lanes The Discovery of Freedom and Patersons The God of the Machine were all put out in 1943 birthing many important ideas of the Libertarian movement. Explaining Americas exceptionalism, defending the greatness of the founding documents and espousing on the importance of individual liberties these women are of great importance to anyone interested liberty and freedom. While Paterson and Lanes books are difficult to find, they can be located with a little digging, Laissez- Faire books would be a good place to start.

Ayn Rands books are available just about everywhere. Covering the well known like F.A. Hayek and the less known but influential (within the movement) like Murray Rothbrand this book has all the bases covered. The chapter "Goldwater, The Objectivist Crack-up, and Hippies of the Right" had some laugh out loud moments. Covering the Austrian School of Economics and the Chicago School this book explains sometimes mundane and complex subjects in an interesting and understandable manner. Milton Freidman is well covered and as one of the most popular Libertarians besides Ayn Rand.

For anyone interested in Limited Government ideals and the variety of philosophies swarming around inside the Libertarian Movement Radicals For Capitalism by Brian Doherty is a must read. In depth and touching on all the main characters, oddballs and strange but true stories that make up the Libertarian movement this a throughly enjoyable book. Go to Libertyoutrider for more ideas, thoughts and information on History and philosophy.

President Ronald Reagan Speaks Out on Abortion

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In 1983, President Reagan wrote an essay for the "Human Life Review" entitled, "Abortion and the Conscience of the Nation." This brief writing of his pro-life philosophy was published in book form a year later. It was expanded to approximately to 95 pages with lengthy afterwords by Surgeon General C. Everett Koop and British essayist Malcolm Muggeridge. Reagan's brief composition is probably one of the better well-argued pro-life essays ever written. It is also significant as it was the first ever by a sitting President. It was President Reagan's attempt to awaken a nation to the implications of abortion. In this short book, President Reagan gives an account on how important the issue of abortion is to the "conscience of a nation."

President Reagan's essay is only 26 pages of the book, but it is well structured. He believed that diminishing the life of the unborn diminishes the value of all human life. He tackled the pro-abortion "quality of life" argument and compared it to the Dred Scott slavery issue. Reagan likened the pro-abortion argument to slavery and drew parallels between the Roe vs. Wade decision and the Dred Scot decision that divided America over a century earlier. According to Reagan, the quality of life argument is an argument for quality control of the population.

Reagan surmises that legalized abortion is a very slippery slope. He says that unborn babies are being killed because they are simply not wanted or come at an inconvenient time. He also states that many are killed because they will be unable to lead a "normal" life as the result of birth defects. Such babies are considered to be of less value and thus denied human rights. He claims this denial of human rights is accomplished by activist judges who frame the interpretation of the US Constitution through the lens of their own pro-abortion beliefs.

Reagan believes that the arbitrary evaluation of unborn lives must stop. He states that this philosophy will lead to further the crimes of infanticide and illustrates this by citing the Indiana case of "Baby Doe." Baby Doe was allowed to starve to death because the child had Down's syndrome. The essence of Reagan's argument is that no nation can survive and prosper when a group of individuals look at a child and declare whether that child has value as a human being. Reagan goes on to say, "Abraham Lincoln recognized that we could not survive as a free land when some men could decide that others were not fit to be free and should therefore be slaves. Likewise, we cannot survive as a free nation when some men decide that others are not fit to live and should be abandoned to abortion or infanticide. My Administration is dedicated to the preservation of America as a free land, and there is no cause more important for preserving that freedom than affirming the transcendent right to life of all human beings, the right without which no other rights have any meaning."

The pro-life movement will not be disappointed with Reagan's essay, and will conclude that it contains very powerful and logical anti-abortion arguments.

Johnny Kicklighter is a charter contributor to the Mosaic Pregnancy & Health Centers, (formerly the New Beginnings Pregnancy Care Center) Fairview Heights, Illinois. Johnny is also an instructor and counselor at the Gateway Biblical Counseling and Training Center.