Dr. Mickey's Corner

As an American of the Jewish faith, I am outraged and embarrassed by Mr. Madoff’s massive fraud.

I equate him to a financial Hitler.  He may not have engaged in mass murder, but he killed or maimed a lot of people’s hopes, dreams, achievements, legacies and peace of mind.  That’s the outrage part.

The embarrassment part is that he is Jewish.  We were always taught the value and importance of Mitzvot (good deeds) and Tzedakah (giving back).  I guess every faith and ethnicity has its share of bad seeds, but I must say that my Jewish pride takes a strong hit when I think of the impact and scope of Madoff’s crimes.

Sometimes outrage and embarrassment are necessary to get us all to look in the mirror and take stock of our individual and collective integrity and responsibility, particularly in terms of our impact on others.

Aside from this piece of self-righteousness, we should be learning from the likes of Mr. Madoff that a major threat to America’s security is the financial gluttony and terrorism in our own midst, and that these people come from an equal opportunity spectrum.

So, it’s not just the matter of good people ratcheting up their own integrity and responsibility.  We must also step up and call out those who are thinking way too much of themselves at the expense of others and the greater good.  In this sense, trusting our instincts that something is not right and exposing it, is important for our personal and national financial security.

My hope was that Mr. Madoff’s biggest punishment would be the total destruction of his reputation.  Further thought tells me he probably doesn’t care due to his sociopathic nature (no guilt or anxiety about one’s impact on people).  However, I’m sure spending the rest of his life in jail will rock him pretty hard.  Since the reality is that financial terrorists are inherently sociopaths, we, the government and media must act on our healthy paranoia.

In short, we all have a role in stopping financial recklessness and fraud.  If heavier government regulation is needed now, let it at least be until we can truly get the hang of regulating ourselves.