Today, 71-year-old Bernard Madoff was sentenced to the maximum sentence–150 years in prison (aka, "The Full Bernie")–for his multibillion-dollar Ponzi scheme. U.S. District Judge Denny Chin issued the sentence today in the Southern District of New York.

My initial quick thoughts:

Whoa!!!

After CW's Matt Kelly set the over/under on the sentence at 75 years, I took the over and predicted 100. But then I foolishly changed to the under and 50 years. Should have stuck with my gut.

I'm no criminal law expert, but under what circumstances are people sentenced to more than 150 years?

Madoff's fraud has reportedly caused a loss of over $13 billion, only $1 billion of which has been recovered. Let's see: $12 billion in outstanding losses and a 150 year sentence. How about we give him a decade off for every $916 million he helps prosecutors recover. If they recovered the full $12 billion, that would take roughly 131 years off of his sentence, leaving him with 19 to serve. He'd walk out of prison a 90-year-old man. Change the math to make it a 100-year-old-man if you prefer, but you get the idea.

Whatever bad things may have happened to you today, look on the bright side: you did not get sentenced to 150 years in prison!