BIGGEST FRAUD EVER - Some of the world's biggest investors have fallen prey to a giant Ponzi scheme. It is hard to tell at this point, but estimates are that Wall Street veteran Bernard Madoff cheated international banks, hedge funds and wealthy private investors out of some $50 billion. Investors include the owners of the Philadelphia Eagles, the New York Mets and, most regrettably, some large charitable foundations.  Mr. Madoff is a past chairman of the board of directors of the Nasdaq Stock Market, as well as a former member of the board of governors of the National Association of Securities Dealers and a member of numerous committees of the organization.  By all accounts, he's been operating his Ponzi scheme for decades.

BIGGER PONZI? - At least one writer thinks the government needs Bernard Madoff for his certified-expert abilities in Ponzi schemes and recommends him as Commissioner of the Social Security Administration. Unfortunately, there are some similarities.

DASCHLE HEALTH CARE PLAN - In selecting Tom Daschle to be his health and human services secretary, President-elect Barack Obama says he wants to secure "affordable, accessible health care for every single American."  Daschle wants to establish a Federal Health Board, a powerful independent entity modeled on the Federal Reserve, to decide which drugs, devices and treatments are covered by federal health programs. And he says the federal government should offer its own health insurance plan, to compete directly with private plans, a proposal that alarms many. Mr. Obama said 45 million people had no health insurance and were struggling to pay "the runaway cost of health care." A major health care initiative "has to be intimately woven into our overall economic recovery plan," Mr. Obama said, adding: "It's not something that we can put off because we are in an emergency. This is part of the emergency." In his book "Critical," Mr. Daschle said that people without job-based insurance should be able to enroll in any of the health plans offered to federal employees, or in a new "government-run insurance program modeled after Medicare." It won't be easy and one has to wonder from whence the money will come.

HEALTH INSURANCE MANDATE - America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) is proposing to help individuals and small groups buy health coverage by creating an "essential benefits plan" that would be exempt from state mandates.  The plan would offer guaranteed coverage for people with pre-existing medical conditions, but only in conjunction with an "enforceable" individual coverage mandate.  On the one hand, it makes sense to require universal coverage if health insurers are going to forego underwriting risks.  On the other hand, it's pretty unlikely that the American public will respond favorably to a requirement to purchase health insurance unless there are some cost controls on insurers in place.   

JOBLESS CLAIMS AT 26 YEAR HIGH - As a deepening recession forced employers to cut back hiring, the number of U.S. workers filing new claims for jobless benefits surged to 524,500 last week, its highest level in 26 years.
 
GOVERNMENT EXIT STRATEGY - SEC Commissioner Christopher Cox says government must create strategies to eventually dilute its involvement with private enterprise. Focusing on exit strategies is vital to avoid "far greater financial exposure for the American people, and a far worse situation for America's taxpayers and investors." In an attempt to boost a severely weakened economy, U.S. officials have doled out billions of dollars in bailouts - in the process making the U.S. government a major shareholder in banking and financial institutions and other private companies across the United States.  Cox said, if prolonged, this will threaten private ownership, which is directly tied to America's dedication to individual freedom and its rise to being a global superpower. But do all our elected officials agree?

TRICKLEDOWN DOWNSIZING - Many highly-paid executives hire domestic help.  In fact, Domestic Workers United, a nonprofit advocacy group, estimates there are more than 200,000 nannies, housekeepers, personal chefs and other domestic workers employed in the New York area alone. Unfortunately, as professionals adjust their spending because of job losses, salary or bonus cuts or just anxiety about the future, domestic workers' wages are often the first thing to go.

SPEAKING OF BONUSES - The top executives at Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley announced that they would not take bonuses for 2008, "following an abysmal year of losses."  This announcement followed reports that Merrill CEO John Thain had been seeking a bonus of $5 to $10 million dollars "because he helped avert a much larger crisis at the firm by engineering its sale to Bank of America."  To that we respond:  

IRRESPONSIBLE AND UNFAIR? - Reports are surfacing that AIG, the recipient of a $150 billion taxpayer-funded bailout, is aggressively cutting its insurance rates in an attempt to win new business and boost market share.  If underwriting losses become a problem, the U.S. government may have to provide more financial support.  According to Liberty Mutual chief executive Edmund Kelly, "I think it's fair to say they're doing some very stupid things in the market.  If (AIG units) are not reined in, it could be very destabilizing for the market."

HEROES AND ZEROS - Click here to review CNNMoney.com's 2008 cast of financial "saints and sinners."