“A sonofabitch who hurt, denigrated or corrupted everyone he had contact with.”
A belated obituary in today’s Graun brought back memories of that mother of all “mutual fund” swindles, the Investors Overseas Services (IOS) scandal of 1970.
IOS was created by one Bernie Cornfeld, who was a pretty outstanding crook and conman himself, but always claimed that it was Vesco who was the real villain. I don’t know: Cornfeld may have been right about that. A one-time friend of Cornfeld’s says this:
“In any case, one lesson Cornfeld taught me still resonates in my mind. Specifically, he warned me that the same kind of malfeasance that visited IOS would recur down the road. There would be new mutual funds and they would ultimately follow the same crooked path. The temptations of mega-sums of money always bring out the worst in certain types of personalities (like Vesco) .” Personally, I think those “types of personalities” are not limited to obvious crooks and hucksters like Vesco, but can be generically referred to as “capitalists”.
Anyway, the death of this particularly brazen (or, if you want to be charitable, ”picaresque”) capitalist crook, is not just an opportunity to draw to your attention a remarkable and quite entertaining life; nor even to remind you that Enron, Worldcom, JP Morgan and Citigroup were not the first examples of stock market fraud and will not be the last: no it’s to invite you to take part in a quiz:
Question: What is the connection between the IOS scandal and Max Shachtman?
The first correct answer will receive a prize. Of some sort. Promise! After all…DO YOU SINCERELY WANT TO BE RICH?
Mikeovswinton said,
May 24, 2008 at 8:47 am
Bernie Cornfeld, in his younger days, had been a member of -and as I lost my late father’s copy of the book “Do you sincerely want to be rich” I can’t quite be certain- either the American SWP or the Workers’ Party. I think he was in the YPSL as well. Wasn’t it when he was at a University in New York?
Jim Denham said,
May 24, 2008 at 10:30 am
Yes, he was briefly in the youth section of the Workers Party.
Now, I expect you’ll be wanting to claim your prize, won’t you? Trouble is, there isn’t one. But thanks for taking the trouble, comrade!
Mikeovswinton said,
May 24, 2008 at 12:27 pm
Having read the book I never expected one. It was nice to be reminded of a book that confrimed many of my views about, ahem, certain sections of the left.
Jim Denham said,
May 24, 2008 at 6:06 pm
Very sporting of you, Mike. If you’re ever in Birmingham (UK) get in touch and I’ll buy you a drink.
Btw: Eva Kollish’s “Girl In Movement” is a very readable, funny and quite moving account of life in and around Shachtman’s group in the 1940’s:
http://www.solidarity-us.org/node/480
Mikeovswinton said,
May 24, 2008 at 7:17 pm
Mike Ov Swinton. That’s Swinton north of Manchester, and I lived in Birmingham (UK)for two years. The only other Birmingham I know of is in the Deep South, and I don’t think I’ll be going there on the Billy Connolly principle. When asked if he was going to watch Scotland in Argentina in ‘78, he said no, because he only went to places he knew he would be coming home from. They had Bull Connor in the other Birmingham so I ain’t taking my chances there. So, to cut a long post short, next time I’m in the Third City, I’ll take that offer up.
Jim Denham said,
May 24, 2008 at 8:17 pm
Third City, indeed! You’d better watch yourself when you visit Brum. But the offer stands
Mikeovswinton said,
May 25, 2008 at 7:20 am
Sorry! Forgot Leeds. Fourth City do you?