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Home > Ponzi scheme

The idea behind the Ponzi scheme is fairly straightforward, and exploits the basic human tendency towards greed. The scheme then perpetuates itself using envy. Although there are variations, here is a classic scenario:

An advertisement is placed somewhere promising extraordinary returns on an investment - for example 20% for a 30 day contract. The precise mechanism for this incredible return can be attributed to any number of causes, such as "global currency arbitrage", "futures trading" or anything else that sounds sufficiently plausible.

Initial investors are usually wary, but eventually someone will invest a small sum (say $5000). Sure enough, 30 days later, the investor receives $6000 - their original capital plus 20% ($1000). At this point greed subsumes reason, and the investor will rush to raise a larger investment. Also typically at this point word begins to spread, and other envious investors will clamour for the opportunity to participate. Soon numerous people will have made $2000 on a $10000 investment, and people are starting to mortgage their houses to raise more capital.

The reality of the scheme is that the "return" is being paid out of the incoming investment money. As Investor B invests $10000, $2000 of that is taken to pay the return to Investor A who invested a month earlier. This obviously makes no sense financially.

However, the catch is that at some point in time the scheme will vanish, typically at a point where a "critical mass" of capital has been achieved, and the operators disappear taking all of the capital amassed with them. A sad aspect of this is that typically all of those who actually made a "profit" at an earlier stage of the scheme will have (voluntarily) re-invested that money back in, so they lose it anyway.

A common variation involves a smaller return for a short-term investment (say 10% over 30 days), but a fantastic return for a longer investment (say 200% after six months). Once the initial trust has been achieved after making the shorter term gain, people are far more likely to leave their funds for this longer period. This naturally gives the operators more time to plan their disappearance.

1 Examples of Ponzi schemes

Ponzi went from anonymity to being a well known Boston millionaire in six months using such a scheme in 1920. Prosecutors claimed that he had amassed $10,000,000 before it fell apart.

More recently, the Bennett Funding Group defrauded investors of $700 million. Investors were told the funds were to finance leases on office equipment.

Even governments have tried versions of the scheme. In 1997 the government of Albania officially endorsed a series of pyramid investment funds. When the inevitable end came, the people of Albania who had lost $1.2 billion took their protest to the streets in a revolt that toppled the government.

The Enron debacle resembled a Ponzi scheme in some ways and Kenneth Lay was accused, in a senate hearing, of being akin to Charles Ponzi.

2 Are state pensions a Ponzi scheme?

It has been suggested that some state pension schemes, e.g. the U.S. Social Security/ Medicare and the U.K. State pension schemes, are actually large-scale Ponzi schemes. Under these schemes, the taxes paid are not saved or invested to pay for future benefits; rather, the taxes go into general government revenues, which pay for current benefits along with other outlays. This also explains why the aging of the Baby Boomer generation presents a threat to the U.S. Social Security system: as more of the Baby Boomers retire, there will be more people collecting Social Security benefits and fewer workers generating payroll taxes.

Supporters of state pension schemes suggest that the balance of taxes and benefits from Social Security is sustainable because the promised benefits from Social Security are not high enough to cause the system to run out of money. Another suggestion is that whether the system is based on pension funds or on a "state pension" scheme, the resources (goods and services) available in a given country are the same, and the choice of the redistribution scheme (between the active population and the retired population) does not change the amount that the country will have saved toward retirement benefits. Basically, to the problem of population aging: if fewer resources are available, any system will have difficulties.

Compare: Pyramid schemeA pyramid scheme is a business model that involves the exchange of money primarily for enrolling other people into the scheme, without any product or service being delivered. Pyramid schemes have been in existence for at least a century. The method of con

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Ponzi schemeA Ponzi scheme is a fraudulent investment operation that involves paying returns to investors out of the money raised from subsequent investors. It is illegal in most countries. The scheme is named after Charles Ponzi, an Italian immigrant to the United S