The lead article in today’s New York Times, “Madoff Says From Prison That Banks ‘Had to Know,’” shows a largely unbowed Bernie Madoff, criticizing media coverage of his son Mark’s suicide, and claiming that large banks willfully turned a blind eye to his Ponzi scheme that consumed up to $90 billion.

Mr. Madoff also claims to have helped the trustee, Irving Picard, who is charged with recovering as much of the assets as possible to redistribute to the victims. It is also worth noting that Mr. Madoff claims that the owners of the Mets, Fred Wilpon and Saul Katz, knew nothing of his scheme. That probably says more about the hapless owners of the Mets and their inability to bring National League playoff baseball to the city than it does about Mr. Madoff’s financial acumen.

Mr. Madoff’s home is now a 12-foot square cell with a window, and he has a roommate, quite a comeuppance for someone of Mr. Madoff’s former stature. He claims that his family knew nothing about his financial wheeling and dealing and expressed sadness about the way the scandal has affected them. So, at least he’s somewhat human.

It’s still rather amazing, though, that Mr. Madoff was able to perpetuate his Ponzi scheme for 16 (!) years without being exposed. It’s a shame that a mind like that had to go to waste.

The lead article in The New York Times this morning, “Cabbies Gouged Over $8 Million from Passengers,” surely can’t come as much of a surprise to any native New Yorker. The story reveals a widespread practice among taxi drivers to charge a higher rate, typically limited to trips to Westchester County or Long Island, for cab rides within the five boroughs of New York City.

The statistics are staggering. Apparently more than 35,000 of the city’s 48,000 cab drivers applied the higher rate incorrectly at one time or another. A total of 1.8 million rides were involved, and approximately 3,000 drivers employed the tactic more than 100 times.

The difference in rates is significant, double for trips outside of New York City. One taxi driver reacted in “dismay,” saying “people will think we are thieves.” That driver hasn’t lived in New York City for very long.

The taxi drivers’ union tried to excuse the practice by saying that the meters were poorly designed. Yeah, right.

Eventually, officials hope to fix the problem by using GPS indicators integrated with the meter. GPS data was involved in catching the fraud, and GPS will be used to fix it. 

Until then, it will be mostly the passengers’ vigilance involved in monitoring the problem. Otherwise, the additional fare could be up to $5 per ride.