Movie of the Week 1

For all you cable cutting rebels searching for something to stream this weekend, here is the pick of the week available on  HBONOW or Prime Video.
 
The Wizard of Lies 2017 drama & true crime

Bobby De Niro, in his best performance in one or two decades, plays con man Bernie Madoff – a Wall Street icon who ran the most notorious Ponzi scheme in modern American business history. Bernie fleeced thousands of investors out of billions, including many Wall Street professionals and Hollywood hot shots such as, Steve Spielberg, Kevin Bacon, Larry King and John Malkovich. One person who had a chance to invest with Madoff, but refused? Donald Trump. The best scene in the movie is when Madoff skillfully ropes in some deep pocket investors at a fancy party. His cunning ruthlessness is on full display to the viewer because at this point in the movie, we know his financial house of cards has begun to collapse in the face of the 2008-2009 Financial Crisis. Well before Madoff’s financial collapse, Harry Markopolos publically challenged the Madoff hedge fund results as “Too good to be true”. Harry also tried to simulate Madoff’s split-strike conversion trading strategy and discovered that it was total Bull Shit. Harry reported his findings to the SEC. The SEC fumbled the Madoff investigation, and Madoff himself provided the best explanation years later, in a prison interview: Bernie Madoff said, "I was astonished they [Securities and Exchange Commission] never even looked at my stock records. If investigators had checked with The Depository Trust Company, it would've been easy for them to see [there were no stocks]. If you're looking at a Ponzi scheme, it's the first thing you do."

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