Confession.

There are exceptions, but for the most part I'm not sympathetic to the individuals and organizations that get screwed by Madoff.

As Mark Seal's VF piece makes clear, these folks never conducted any due diligence on Madoff Securities, never wondered why they were making money in down markets -- in short, never questioned a goddamn thing so long as, at least on paper, they kept getting an outsized ROI.

The lesson people want draw from this mess is that there's a greater need for regulation; I agree, but that's the easy lesson. It's more difficult to admit the obvious: that a lot of people, for a lot of years, essentially tossed their skepticism out the window because they kept receiving (bullshit) monthly statements that made them feel good.

Isn't this a problem, too?