Bernie Madoff and the Crisis ─ The Public Trial of Capitalism

On December 11, 2008, Madoff's $65 billion Ponzi scheme came to light. Economic upheaval had plunged America into a horrid recession, and Madoff's story was a media magnet. Bernie Madoff and the Crisis examines how and why Madoff became the epicenter of public fury and titillation. Rooting her argument in critical sociology, Colleen P. Eren analyzes media coverage of this landmark case alongside original interviews with dozens of journalists and editors, the SEC Director of Public Affairs, and Bernie Madoff himself. Turning the mirror back onto society, Eren locates the Madoff case within a broader reckoning with free market capitalism. She argues that our ideological and cultural tendencies to attribute blame to individuals?be they regulators, victims, or "monsters" like Madoff?distract us from engaging in critiques of the system that spawned them. Bernie Madoff and the Crisis asks whether we have come to terms with the financial crisis and what we have yet to learn.

Colleen P. Eren is Associate Professor of Criminal Justice at the City University of New York, LaGuardia Community College.