Speaking of Forbes:
Obama Ponzi Scheme: Forbes Calls Obama Administration Worse than Madoff
'Forbes on FOX' guests asked if Madoff's Ponzi scheme or Obama's spending plan will cause more economic damage.
By Lauren O'Reilly
Business & Media Institute
3/17/2009 4:10:02 PM
According to some âForbes on Foxâ guests, the Obama Administration is more harmful to the economy than Bernie Madoffâs infamous Ponzi scheme.
On March 12, Madoff pled guilty to 11 felony counts including money laundering, perjury, and mail, wire, and securities fraud. On Mar. 14, Fox host David Asman asked guests of the show âWhoâs worse for the market â Bernie Madoff or the folks in D.C.?â
Steve Forbes, Forbes magazineâs editor-in-chief, blamed the folks in D.C. as the worse culprit. Forbes explained that âin terms of what the current administration is doing, in terms of the cost theyâre applying to the economy, uh destroying, hitting businesses, small businesses with new taxes, taxing capital, wasting tens and hundreds of billions of dollars, thatâs gonna do more economic harm than Bernie Madoff could ever dream of doing.â
Guest Mike Ozanian, accused Obama of running a $2 trillion Ponzi scheme through his economic spending strategy. Ozanian, national editor of Forbes, explained, âMadoffâs scam is about $20 billion. Barack Obamaâs Ponzi scheme is $2 trillion. And if you look at how they work the schemes, theyâre very similar. Both falsify their returns, Obama has overinflated what the GDP is gonna be, the economy, how much itâs gonna grow. Even the Congressional Budget Office has said Obamaâs numbers are way inflated. And to pay for that, heâs gotta bring in a lot of other scamsters through, Obama does, which in this case really are taxpayers.â
As an example of government swindle, Asman cited the annual $50 billion of fraud and waste in Medicare â the same dollar amount Madoff scammed from investors. âOne government program wastes as much as Bernie Madoff,â he pointed out.
But Forbes market report Evelyn Rusli and national editor Quentin Hardy disagreed with those claims. Hardy called the comparison between government actions and Madoff âsilly and wrong and more cynicism than anything I can imagine.â
Asman asked Hardy to answer in the context of whether the government or Madoff âdoes more damage to the market.â Hardy fumbled for words and changed the subject, commenting âya know, uh, the great thing Obamaâs doing is talking about personal responsibility.â Hardyâs claim made Ozanian bowl over in a fit of laughter, and Forbes chuckle and made a face. âGo ahead and laugh. Let me finish,â Hardy replied, and then made his point that government is merely cleaning up a mess caused by individuals ripping off the market.
Ozanian said he laughed because âObamaâs Ponzi scheme is doing the same thing that Madoffâs did. Heâs taking money from people not even in the system, taxpayers not even in the system, and heâs going to scourge them for money down the road.â