I guess maybe it’s a sign of the times where discussions of trillion dollar deficits and billion dollar bailouts are commonplace. When I read the article on how the SEC had uncovered a $50M Ponzi scheme run by a Philadelphia fund manager, my reaction was basically, “Yeah… so?.” They slept through Bernard Madoff’s $50B fraud, and now we’re supposed to be impressed with a lousy $50M? This would be like the police telling me that they have no idea who stole my truck, but they did nab the kid who picked up the pocket change I lost. That’s the same order of magnitude difference.

Now I still think that $50M is a lot of money personally. I would certainly take that check, and fret a lot less over my 401K if i had it. But on the national stage? It suddenly seems like small beans.