Bye Bye Bernie

At long last, Bernard Madoff, the man who put Ponzi schemes on the map and stole billions of dollars from corporations, foundations and just about everything else with deep pockets ending with an ation, is behind bars. Yes, a few hours ago Madoff entered his guilty plea, explaining (what everyone on the planet with a TV knows) that his investment company was all a sham. Madoff now sits in a cell awaiting his life sentence.

Though Madoff’s court and slammer appearance are hogging headlines today, there are a few other stories that squeaked atop pages, including this WSJ piece that nearly brought me to tears (and not the sorrowful kind) about the down-and-out-of-New York City-based boys and girls of Goldman Sachs who, when they come to Manhattan to talk biz, are now forced to drink Budweiser from plastic cups instead of enjoying martinis with muddled cucumber, and slumber atop 250-threadcount poly/cotton blend sheets instead of 400-count 100-percent Egyptian cotton bedding. Sure, the Embassy Suites ain’t no Ritz, but remember: popcorn at happy hour!

The credit crisis/depression/recession/all around tough time has also put a major dent in the wallets of the world’s billionaires, a dent to the tune of $1.7 trillion, a dent so large that poor Warren Buffett has had to relinquish the title of world’s richest dude to his bud Bill Gates. (There is good news for patriots: Despite the fact that we Americans started this mess, we’re still well ahead of all other countries in wealth and number of billionaires. Well done, U.S. of A.!)

Finally, as fashion week comes to an end over in Paris, it seems that everywhere salaries are (as was previously forecasted) the new bonus.