Ponzi: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
[[File:Pyramid scheme diagram.svg|thumb|A pyramid scheme illustrated.]]
Get Bob and Alice to both lend you money. Give Alice her money back, with the addition of some really good "interest" you took out of Bob's loan. Stall Bob.
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That's the core of a [[wikipedia:Ponzi scheme|Ponzi scheme]], making one mark's investment work to make another mark feel comfortable. Named after Charles Ponzi, who became famously rich using this scheme in 1920. He later became an economic advisor to [[Benito Mussolini]], which might explain a few things about [[Fascist Italy]].
Most Ponzi schemes use much more than two people, and in fact depend on a constant influx of new people putting in money to pay the other ones. Indeed, a common name for Ponzi schemes is "rob Peter to pay Paul", as the principle is the same—except that today's Peter is tomorrow's Paul, until this grows unsustainable. May also be referred to as a Pyramid Scheme.<ref>There are differences between a Ponzi Scheme and a Pyramid Scheme, but for media, it’s often used interchangeably.</ref> The largest example ever was the $60,000,000,000 collapse of the firm of Bernie Madoff, whose operation was a classic Ponzi scheme. The Reverse Ponzi Scheme is actually a form of the [[Delayed Wire]] con.
{{examples}}
== [[Film]] ==
* ''[[The Other Guys]]'' has [[Corrupt Corporate Executive]] [[Evil Matriarch|Pamela Boardman]] and her [[Evil Brit|British]] partner-in-crime Sir Ershon conducting such a scheme. After he attempts to defect with the money, she sends mercenary hitmen after him (and the protagonists, who just happened to arrest him on a minor construction fraud). {{spoiler|The story ends with him and the assassins arrested, [[Karma Houdini|while Boardman receives a bailout from the American government]]}}. The ending credits give the viewers an [[Edutainment]] section about what a Ponzi-scheme is and how it works, complete with the appropriate statistics of the 2008 financial crisis.▼
== [[Literature]] ==
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* Used in one of the short stories in the [[Ellery Queen]] collection ''QBI - Queen's Bureau of Investigation''.
== [[
▲* ''[[The Other Guys]]'' has [[Corrupt Corporate Executive]] [[Evil Matriarch|Pamela Boardman]] and her [[Evil Brit|British]] partner-in-crime Sir Ershon conducting such a scheme. After he attempts to defect with the money, she sends mercenary hitmen after him (and the protagonists, who just happened to arrest him on a minor construction fraud). {{spoiler|The story ends with him and the assassins arrested, [[Karma Houdini|while Boardman receives a bailout from the American government]]}}. The ending credits give the viewers an [[Edutainment]] section about what a Ponzi-scheme is and how it works, complete with the appropriate statistics of the 2008 financial crisis.
* Fairly popular as a plot device in police procedurals [[Ripped from the Headlines|following the Madoff scandal]].
* ''[[Penn
* In Episode 1-7 of ''[[Boardwalk Empire]]'' Nucky Thompson has a chat with one of his friends, an investor in/victim of Charles Ponzi's [[Trope Namer|Trope Naming]] scheme.
* One episode of ''[[Two and A Half Men]]'' has Alan accidentally sets up a pyramid scheme by asking his friends and family for money for advertisements and paying them back with each other's money. When he realizes what he has done, he decides to just go with it and spends the rest of the money on himself. In the end he is saved because he is bribed by {{spoiler|Rose}} to keep quiet about {{spoiler|her fake marriage}} and can pay everyone back.
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** Another big one was Sergei Mavrodi's MMM from the early [[The New Russia|New Russia]].
* The dust hasn't settled yet, but the [[wikipedia:Bernie Madoff|Bernie Madoff]] scheme has taken the record away from it in terms of sheer amount of wealth destroyed, if not causing an armed rebellion.
**...as well as being an example of a [[Meaningful Name]]: "Bernie made off".
* Adjusting for inflation and overall world economic growth, the all-time biggest Ponzi scheme (so far) was that perpetrated by [[wikipedia:Ivar Kreuger|"The Match King" Ivar Kreuger]].
* Yet another scheme was run by former [[Boy Band]] magnate [[wikipedia:Lou Pearlman|Lou Pearlman]].
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{{reflist}}
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[[Category:The Tale]]
[[Category:The Con]]
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