I have to admit the Bernard Madoff story didn't get onto my radar as fast as it should have.

Yes, it was included prominently on Pat's Papers this morning, but I really hadn't sat down until this weekend to dig into the story.

My strong response now is: How do they let this happen? And by "they" I do mean the regulators. I understand how Bear Stearns got over-leveraged. I understand how Countrywide got into trouble with bad mortgages. I understand why nobody could understand the credit default swaps that AIG insured.

But I'm having trouble understanding how nothing emerged to flag the fact that billions of assets were on deposit with NO ONE. We've all shed a few tears lately opening up our quarterly or monthly brokerage and mutual fund statements. But even with all the paper losses I still have a high degree of confidence that somewhere there's an asset with my name on it.

I can't quite figure out how this one got past everybody for so long.

Labels: Bernard Madoff