It strikes me that one New Yorker who has reason to be grateful to Bernie Madoff as the year concludes – and there are not many – is Dick Fuld.
Until Mr Madoff came along, Mr Fuld was set to be the face of the 2008 financial crisis, and to attract the lion’s share of the opprobrium that came with it. He had even been pictured on the cover of New York Magazine in devil’s horns.
But Mr Madoff’s alleged fraud makes Mr Fuld look angelic by comparison. He suffered from hubris, miscalculated Lehman’s strength and pushed it to the brink, but it was an honest mistake.
The people who suffered from his error were Lehman’s shareholders (including Mr Fuld himself) rather than individuals who placed their entire trust, and life savings, with Mr Madoff.
Mr Fuld’s conduct may have seemed devilish at the time but that was then, and this is now. Mr Madoff is now under 24-hour house arrest, partly for his own protection, so badly is he regarded.
