Welcome to the Dividing Cafe weekly market commentary focused on dividends in your portfolio

and dividends in your understanding of economic life.

Well, hello and welcome to the Dividendon Cafe. I am today, as I've been kind of telegraphing

all week, addressing the subject of Bernie Madoff,

and it's an odd thing to address, and it really actually, as you'll soon see, doesn't have

anything to do with Bernie Madoff.

It's going to be about a broader investment point that I think is one of the most important

and yet nearly impossible investment lessons

for any mere mortal to ever understand and to ever fully comprehend.

And I'm going to explain why I think that is.

But first, a little context as to why the name Bernie Madoff would even be in the lexicon of Dividing Cafe.

For those who don't know, I assume everybody watching or listening is familiar

with the name.

It's just complete, you know, societal, cultural folklore by now that in late December, excuse me, in late 2008 and in December,

a real Wall Street fixture by name of Bernie Madoff had been arrested in what was soon

known to be the largest discovered Ponzi scheme in history.

And in the months and years that followed, there was quite a drama around a lot of it.

For obvious reasons, the sheer size of what has been called a $65 to $70 billion Ponzi scheme.

It's a lot of money to Ponzi.

And I'll explain what the real math that was in a moment.

But also, Bernie Madoff himself ended up dying in prison roughly about a decade later, but not before both of his sons tragically died.

He were never charged with any crimes.

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