PONZI IS ALIVE AND WELL

[kenneth delves]

Bernard Madoff, up to a short while ago a respected member of the financial establishment nearly pulled off the impossible,a Ponzi scheme that kept going. To be successful at this type of scheme you need an infinite number of investors since you are paying off investors with new money. Bernie expanded it out to $50b. Among the bjg losers were Spielberg and Fred Wilpon, the Mets owner plus several pension funds and surprisingly, Swiss banks, in fact a lot of people who should know better. For once the French got it right:Societe General checked his fund out in 03 and told everyone to avoid it like the plague. All this goes to show the with all those harvard mbas around people are still blinded by greed and basically trust someone who tells them what they want to hear. The phrases 'emperors new clothes' and 'pied piper of hamelin' come to mind.

[Chris Fleming]

Ponzi is very alive...he's called "Social Security" nowadays...