Batman tried to warn us about Madoff

If investors had only listened to The Dark Knight:

INT. BOARDROOM, WAYNE ENTERPRISES -- CONTINUOUS

                              FOX
                    Another long night?
                        (Wayne smiles)
                    This joint venture was your idea, and
                    the consultants love it, but I'm not
                    convinced. L.S.I.'s grown 8 percent
                    annually, like clockwork. They must
                    have a revenue stream that's off the
                    books. Maybe even illegal.

                               WAYNE
                    OK.   Cancel the deal.

                              FOX
                        (looks at Wayne)
                    You already knew.

                              WAYNE
                    I needed a closer look at their
                    books.

Ponzi schemer (eh, alleged Ponzi schemer) Bernard Madoff's chart looked suspiciously like that of the fictional L.S.I.:

We've all heard how Bernie Madoff's returns sounded too smooth and consistent to be true. In picture form, however, the returns are even more eyebrow raising. The chart below shows the cumulative returns of $1 invested in the hedge fund Fairfield Sentry Limited, which was a fund run by Fairfield Greenwich Group that essentially directed all of its assets to the stewardship of Bernie Madoff...

...As shown, $1 invested in Madoff back in 1990 was supposed to be worth $6.75 today. NPB Bank, out of Zurich, even offered a version of this fund with three times the leverage. Talk about too good to be true.

Of course, both schemes remind me of, say, Social Security and Medicare.

Uncle Ponzi needs you!