GOOD DAY FOR: Crocodile tears, after Forbes’ annual list of billionaires fell to 793, from 1,125 last year. The average net worth of the billionaires also fell, by 23 percent, to $3 billion a head. Bill Gates reclaimed the top spot from Warren Buffett. Among those take off the list was alleged Texas fraudster R. Allen Stanford. (Houston Chronicle)
BAD DAY FOR: Meeting your new roommates, as Bernard Madoff, set to plead guilty Thursday to 11 counts of fraud, will likely spend the rest of his life in a low-security federal prison with other white-collar inmates who will either try to squeeze him for suspected hidden reserves of cash or blame him for the Wall Street crash. “Madoff isn’t going to be real popular,” said Wall Street prisoner consultant Larry Levine. “All the guys there will have wives or parents who are losing their homes or their jobs or who can’t send money to them anymore. Everybody’s going to be blaming Bernie.” (Bloomberg)
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