Ruth Madoff's Money

"Your Money's No Good"

Once upon a time, the expression, "your money's no good" was the highest sort of compliment.

That's what the bartender would say to a decorated vet ordering a drink, or the restaurateur to a pillar of the community.

Now, it's what New York City hair salons, restaurants -- and, apparently, would-be landlords -- are telling Ruth Madoff (all of whom are declining her business).

To be sure, what underlies this isn't moral disapprobation, but pure business considerations: no business proprietor wants to risk alienating their other customers by serving a notorious scammer, just as no one wants to run a gauntlet of paparazzi every time they leave their home (ask Madonna about trying to buy a deluxe New York co-op).

However, on some level, perhaps this attitude reflects the return of an old-fashioned response to heinous conduct: collective shunning, also known as "ostracism."

Madoff Musings

Sightseeing in NY City

So, how do you spend a week in New York City with a couple kids?

The usual: Empire State building, Statue of Liberty, Museum of Natural History, Central Park Zoo, Bernie and Ruth Madoff Penthouse.

OK, that last one I added on my own. And as of last week, it's not theirs anymore -- federal marshalls seized it (Good!).

It wasn't hard to find: the paparazzi in front gave it away.

Never having talked to one, my image of them was of a half-man, half-barracuda. In fact, they were quite amiable -- and mostly bored. When I asked one of them why Ruth Madoff would ride the subway, as she had done the previous week to a crush of humiliating publicity, he simply remarked, "stupid."

So were there any surprises?

Actually, yes.

In the Midwest, the term, "Bernie Madoff's $7 million penthouse apartment" immediately conjures up images of lavish 5th Avenue digs overlooking Central Park.

In fact, those apartments cost anywhere from $25 million to $50 million (still).

Seven million just buys you a very nice unit, at the top of an undistinguished pre-War building, a block from the 63rd and Lexington subway stop (still a high-rent neighborhood, to be sure).