Nicolas Cage is one degree from Kevin Bacon
There was a time when being in Hollywood and losing all your millions happened because you had a really bad coke habit or you liked to make it rain too much, but nowadays people are going broke because of good sound money “management”. When the news of Bernie Madoff broke people who haven’t been following things initially assumed ohh these greedy Millionaires Thousandaires were trying to cheat the system and they just simply got caught how could they not see the signs. I have to confess I was one of those people as well. The more I read however the more shocking and actually horrifying this whole debacle has and is becoming. I fear this is just the tip of the iceberg. Not a lot of people may know this but Robert Allen Stanford and Bernie Madoff weren’t just a couple of bums giving stock tips in a dark alley they were some of the most trusted people in the financial system. These were the types of people who give presidents financial advice for their country. So were does that leave you and me. It might mean that rappers spending all their money on gold teeth might have been a sound investment if it wasn’t for all that plaque and gingivitis next to those diamonds.
The financial world is/was on the verge of cratering as John McCain so eloquently put it to Dave Letterman. Who do you trust… MSN seems to have great advice about money but who did they ask for it? Is money under the mattress really such a bad thing? If rich people don’t know what the hell they are doing what chance do us the little man have? The story about how Nicolas Cage lost all his millions and ended up owning 6 million dollars in taxes is still unfolding but the bastard who started it walking away scot free at least for now has not deviated from the playbook. While his story may have a silver lining because well hey he is Nicolas Cage and he can get 20 million dollars to be in a movie tomorrow, regular people whose backs this story is built on will not be so lucky.
I don’t have all the answers for your money, hell this is a blog who makes fun of people with a milk carton, but I do know that whatever we think we know about finances it is partly to blame for why these scams continue and ensnare everybody. Mr. Cage’s bankruptcy and say your bankruptcy are two different things for one before the ink dries he can get a multimillion dollar loan while you can’t even get a library card. Most ponzi schemes are built on the back of your poor dreams. I’ve heard the top 3% the richest of the rich own more combined wealth than the rest of the 95% of Americans. As shocking as that is what’s more shocking is that this 3% lives off of the broken dreams and the debt of the rest of America. The chasing of that great Apple iPie if you will. Debt is out of control as is our ability to distinguish between needs vs wants.
I made this post partly in jest of Nic Cage who is one of my favorite actors and partly because there are millions of Nicolas Cages who wake up one morning with the rug pulled from under them when they thought they were doing everything right. I guess its time for us to take our money back.
