allegations documents from early investigations into several major banks and convicted ponzi schemer bernard madoff were illegally destroyed. s.e.c. officials say the former policy that allowed staffers to discard documents has since been revised. >>> finally, say good-bye to brownies baked under a bulb. energy efficiency has sparked a modern makeover for the easy-bake oven. the old school 100-watt incondescent bulb has been replaced with a heating element like you'll find in a grown-up stove. >>> mariano rivera's pursuit of the major league saves record is put on hold. apparently it wasn't time to forgive and forget at last night's dodgers/diamondbacks game. your early morning sports headlines are straight ahead. >>> and our well-advertised taste of fall is moving into the eastern half of the country. your forecast is coming up. you're watching "early today." >>> good morning. if you are just waking up, this is "early today." in sports, the mlb playoffs are just starting to take form with the phillies clinching the first postseason berth. here's nbc's fred roggin with an early look at all your spo

allegations documents from early investigations into several major banks and convicted ponzi schemer bernard madoffere illegally destroyed. s.e.c. officials say the former policy that allowed staffers to discard documents in closed cases has since been revised. >>> finally, say good-bye to brownies baked under a bulb. energy efficiency has sparked a modern makeover for the easy-bake oven. the old school 100 watt incandescent bulb has been replaced with a heating element like you'll find in a grown-up oven. >>> mariano rivera's pursuit of the major league saves record is put on hold. apparently it wasn't time to forgive and forget at last night's dodgers/diamondbacks game. your "first look" at sports is straight ahead. [ female announcer ] investing for yourself isn't some optional pursuit. a privilege for the ultra-wealthy. it's a necessity. i find investments with e-trade's top 5 lists. quickly. easily. i use pre-defined screeners and insightful trading ideas to dig deeper. work smarter. not harder. i depend on myself the one person i do trust to take charge of my financial future. [ bell dinging

and most of these cases got little attention but the media loves arch criminals like financier bernard madoff is a complicated right collar crimes of which the government does not have the resources to thoroughly prosecute and the white collar criminals know it so they set it up not as a single transaction that's a crime but a series of transaction that wants to put together makes it a crime but that you have to go beyond the prosecution of one wrongdoer and look at it we want street itself became a ponzi scheme you have to examine a pattern a system of criminality which brought the investment and real estate worlds together in a movie trillion dollars. scam. to simplify there were three interconnected rings in this circus involving the biggest firms in the industry it started in the real estate business where our desire for homes the in her again dream was turned into a scheme first predatory subprime lending over the years got people into mortgages they couldn't afford and that the lenders knew they couldn't sustain it was enabled by artificially low interest rates with financing provided b

had a criminal conflict of interest when he handled legal matters surrounding the case against bernard madoff for the s.e.c. here's why-- he helped the s.e.c. decide if money should be taken back from madoff investors who withdrew more than they'd invested. but becker had received an inheritance from his mother that included madoff funds. becker may face charges with the justice department. media in 2011-- it's all about cutting out the middleman. harry lin explains. he's executive-in-residence at idea-lab, a technology incubator in pasadena, california. >> one of my favorite $10 words in the tech industry is "disintermediation." basically, it means cutting out the middleman. the internet is a massive driver of disintermediation, especially in media industries. lets talk about tv and books. back in the pre-youtube days, if you had creative talents suited for television, you'd, well, try to get a job in television. you'd pitch your project to a network or studio, or you'd go to auditions and try to land a role or an agent. today, though, there's the phenomenon of the youtube star, a self-made