Why We Keep Falling for Financial Scams

Links 1/3/08
naked capitalism — ... Why We Keep Falling for Financial Scams Wall Street Journal. Who do you mean by "we"? (I did not believe there were WMDs in Iraq either) Interesting nevertheless. ...

Weekend Linky Dinks
UpsideTrader — ... is one that I never had a big problem with. I think Obama is low balling 10% unemployment, but that's just me. If Wave 4 is for real, there could be one hell of a tradeable rally on its way. Adam Warner talks about trading the Leveraged ETF's. Tim Knight is cautious, so listen, he's been right. A true grifter will take your money until the bitter end. It's just in their DNA. Why 2009 will be worse . Why we keep falling for financial scams My buddy Phil Pearlman is back to blogging, long overdue, check him out.

Sunday links: down but not out
Abnormal Returns — ... Hedge funds are down, but not out. (Barrons.com) Why we keep falling for financial scams. (WSJ.com) Warren Buffett put some $20 billion of cash to work in 2008. (Marketwatch.com) The world’s leading investment luminaries don’t always follow their own advice. (WSJ.com) “While Treasuries look rich, other parts of the bond market beckon, including ...

How Madoff suckered an expert on gullibility
BloggingStocks — ... In a lengthy op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, the emeritus professor of psychology at the University of Connecticut, Greenspan argues that even highly educated people can become victims of a Ponzi scheme. The architects of these frauds tend to be personable people adept on playing on the insecurities of their clients. ...

Madoff, and How He Can Benefit American Culture
Business Pundit — ... The deception worked out for everyone, while it lasted. People had interest in maintaining their stake in Madoff’s scheme, even if their guts told them it was hollow. The scandal says as much about our culture as it does about the financial system. We’re willing to assume something is ethical when it offers a decent return and social stamp of approval. ...

India's WorldCom?
Conglomerate — ... I was a lowly paralegal, fresh from an abortive career in literature, working on a securities class action against a California chip-maker. I had always thought business was mysterious and impenetrable, and that financial fraud must be sophisticated beyond my ken. It was a revelation that smart, powerful businesspeople occassionally decide that it's a good idea to make numbers up, trusting that "gaps" will close and everything will turn out okay in the end. I may be naive, or even gullible, but my reaction is still, "You really thought no one was going to notice? A billion ...

Financially-shrunken shrink. . . psyched!
NakedShorts — ... Warning: The equation resolves as History + (Common sense dressed as PsychoBunkum) = Yawn. Consider yourself warned. Why We Keep Falling for Financial Scams by Stephen Greenspan (probably no relation) The Wall ...

Why Gullible People Continually Fall For Scams, Written By A Madoff Victim
TIM - Timothy Sykes — Why Gullible People Continually Fall For Scams, Written By A Madoff Victim Posted by Timothy Sykes on Fri 23rd of Jan, 2009 09:05:34 AM I saw THIS great article in the WSJ the other day…or maybe somebody sent it to me…I can’t remember, too much going on right now, mostly vacationing and working on the final bits of the ...