A Fool Looks Back

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Ding, dong. The witch is jailed!

Disgraced swindler Bernard Madoff was sentenced to 150 years behind bars on Monday. Unless there's a clause in the judgment where Madoff can choose to be cryogenically frozen, it's a life sentence.

There will be other Madoffs. Fraudsters aren't an endangered species. However, at least the healing process can begin for those directly affected by Madoff's actions. The rest of us can be assured that we won't be hearing his name as often as we have in recent months, and that's also a good thing.

There are lessons of vigilance, self-empowerment, and skepticism here. We should never forget that. However, it's time to move on. It's time to be a more hands-on individual investor.

Briefly in the news
And now let's take a quick look at some of the other stories that shaped our week.

• Biogen Idec (Nasdaq: BIIB) and Elan's (NYSE: ELN) Tysabri hit another bump in the road. A tenth case of progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy -- a life-threatening brain infection -- has been linked to a patient on the promising multiple sclerosis drug. No one said that the path to medical breakthroughs would be paved.
  
• Online advertising giants Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) and Yahoo! (Nasdaq: YHOO) aren't so hungry to catch up to Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) that they'll eat anything in their path. Both Web titans are shedding dot-com subsidiaries they once acquired. Microsoft is looking to unload Razorfish, the creative ad agency it scooped up two years ago. Yahoo! is winding down Maven Networks, the digital video syndication specialist it snapped up just last year. I guess you sometimes do have to take a step back before taking two steps forward.
  
• LogMeIn (Nasdaq: LOGM) became the market's latest IPO on Wednesday. Shares of the remote PC access enabler opened at $20, well ahead of the $16 initial price that underwriters deemed appropriate. If debutantes keep getting gobbled up like this, you can expect the pipeline of new deals to really start flowing in the second half of the year.

Until next week, I remain,

Rick Munarriz