Bernie Madoff, and the creation and subversion of regulatory authority

This paper revisits the Maddof ponzi scheme scandal to illustrate two themes. The first the extent to which government action creates the malpractice it will later investigate and censure. Secondly, the extent to which the affinity between Maddof and his victims, who were often fellow Jews, indicates the role of trust and its breach in the growing incidence of such crimes.