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    Author Topic: The Biggest Pyramid Scheme Ever Devised!  (Read 13076 times)
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    July 07, 2011, 06:29:16 AM
     #101

    http://www.businessweek.com/investing/insights/blog/archives/2008/12/ponzi_nation.html

    Ponzi Nation
    Posted by: Matthew Goldstein on December 14, 2008

    Wall Street trader Bernard Madoff allegedly defrauds the rich and famous out of tens of billions of dollars. Minnesota businessman Tom Petters allegedly fleeces hedge funds out of $3.5 billion. And socialite New York lawyer Marc Dreier may have duped some hedge funds into giving him hundreds of millions of dollars for an apparently bogus real estate scheme.

    All of these scams are big and all appear to be some kind of Ponzi scheme, designed to take in money from new investors to pay-off earlier investors. A Ponzi scheme is one of the oldest financial frauds around. And many are referring to the Madoff caper as the biggest Wall Street fraud ever.

    But derivatives consultant Janet Tavakoli may be onto something. In a note to her clients, she says the biggest Ponzi scheme of all may be the one that brought the world financial markets to its knees. And that’s the scheme that united Wall Street bankers with mortgage lenders in a bid to funnel more and more money into the market for supbrime homes loans. She says the packaging of iffy home loans into securitized bonds that could be sold to insitutional investors—many of them relying on borrowed money—was a system born to fail.

    “The largest Ponzi scheme in the history of the capital markets is the relationship between failed mortgage lenders and investment banks that securitized the risky overpriced loans and sold these packages to other investors—a Ponzi scheme by every definition applied to Madoff,” says Tavakoli. “These and other related deeds led to the largest global credit meltdown in the history of the world.”

    About a year ago, BusinessWeek made a similar point in an article about the two Bear Stearns hedge funds that collapsed in June 2007 and helped spark the credit crisis. The story focused on a novel type of collateralized debt obligation that the managers of the Bear funds used to tap funding from money-market funds. The CDOs which were widely copied on Wall Street helped fuel the market for these esoteric securities, along with the underlying housing boom.

    In that article, BusinessWeek likened the new market that the Bear funds helped inspire a pyramid scheme. Or, as Tavakoli says, a Ponzi scheme.

    One of the hallmarks of a Ponzi scheme is an investment vehicle that generates consistent, steady returns. That’s what discourages investors from pulling too much money out of the fund—the event that ulimately causes a Ponzi scheme to collapse. One reason so many wealthy people showered money on Madoff is that his fund generated predictable returns—rain or shine.

    The Bear funds similiarly generated steady and stable returns before the bottom fell out of the subprime mortgage market. In the final months before the Bear funds collapses, Ralph Cioffi and Matthew Tannin scrambled to find new investor money and other sources of funding. This past summer, federal prosecutors charged Cioffi and Tannin with deceiving investors about the health of the funds and actively discouraging investors from pulling their money out.

    Cioffi and Tannin were the first Wall Street executives charged in the financial meltdown. Now you can add Madoff’s name to that list and more are sure to follow. One thing the credit crunch is unearthing are lots of long running scams. Just as money has dried up for legitimate businesses, there’s no money to keep the Ponzi machine going.

    Posted Comment -
    Reader Comments
    Karl
    December 14, 2008 2:06 PM

    Maybe the biggest Ponzi Scheme in the world is simply the United States of America!!!! Look at our stock market, as an example! One year ago today the Dow closed at 13,340. It's now at about 8,650, but that's with OVER $200 BILLION that the FED injected into the Banking System earlier this year BEFORE the $700 BILLION was even a reality!!!! Now, the $700 BILLION grows another $100 BILLION to equal $800 BILLION! And don't forget about China's $500 BILLION that they have/HAD in Treasury bonds! Is it still there? Did they take it out? What about China's other $1 TRILLION that they had invested in the USA, besides the $500 BILLION in Treasury bonds? Did they take it out of the USA? Perhaps the entire U.S. economy is, and HAS BEEN, the biggest PONZI SCHEME in the WORLD? We'll soon find out when '4th QUARTER RESULTS' are posted in January! That's when the TRUTH should all come out!!! Go Harvard!!!!! Go BusinessWeek!!!!! P.S. If investors go to "cash-in" their stocks, 401K's, IRA's......in January & it's NOT there, then the U.S. economy WAS nothing but a PONZI SCHEME, correct? I hope I'm wrong & all is well in the USA, but I'd hate to have money invested in the stock market right now. 90% of all those 401k's & IRA's are invested in the stock market!!!! Say a PRAYER that all is well. Happy Holidays!
    Vince
    December 14, 2008 2:30 PM

    Yes Karl, the us economy is a ponzi scheme. It's also refered to as the Capatlist, boom and bust theory. Some people get rich, most are left eventualy to defend for themselves. Then the process starts all over again, after you have a recession or depression like we are now entering.
    Chuck Gaffney
    December 14, 2008 2:40 PM

    Let's not forget to add Social Security and College Tuition to the list of Ponzi schemes
    Carl P
    December 14, 2008 2:45 PM

    ....And many are referring to the Madoff caper as the biggest Wall Street fraud ever.

    Are you sure?

    One could argue the CDS driven financial crisis resulting in the $1 trillion government bailout, is a bigger Ponzi scheme. Taxpayers (new investors) are funding the exit of old investors - except Goldman Sachs - they are doing just fine.

    Anybody out there still want to privatize Social Security?

    Its not a Masonic, Illuminati or Skull and Bones conspiracy, lets not be silly. As my father's Godfather would say; Its just business.
    Michael
    December 14, 2008 2:51 PM

    One thing that should be done to prevent these ponzi schemes is to enable individual investors to buy and sell stocks directly; and to declare most of these "investment funds" illegal.
    c
    December 14, 2008 2:57 PM

    us dollar = ponzi scheme no doubt about it.

    dollar bills = just worth their recyclable value in my opinion. poj
    Ace
    December 14, 2008 3:45 PM

    The Mark Mitchell article posted here is a hack conspiracy drivel SPAM shtick ran by a group in Utah funded by a rich loon.

    Mark is a paid "reporter" lapdog for the wild eyed "Worst CEO Ever" nominee Patrick Byrne of Overstock.com

    Tread lightly at that link, they have a bad habit of cyberstalkng folks.
    Ching Fu
    December 14, 2008 3:58 PM

    I agree with Kari that the whole USA is a ponzi scheme. It's surprising that the US institutions and government has managed to 'censor' these info away from the public. Since 1970s when USA stopped backing the US Dollar with gold, they started the biggest ponzi scheme ever - printing money without limit by forcing oil to be traded in US dollar. Getting countries of the world to invest in the US by both carrots and sticks. Who are the investors? Countries like Japan, China, Singapore, etc who invest in US Treasury bills who will one day find them to be worthless. In 2006 the Fed decided to stop revealing M3 data abt the economy - I assume they are printing even more dollars now! The US dollar is not backed by gold. It is backed by the US military hence you have Iraq and possibly Iran as they have all threatened to trade oil in other currencies. But how long can you go on defending the dollar this way? It is a matter of time. Right now the United States is already bankrupt. Its investors (Japan, China, etc) are in a catch 22 situation cos if they decide to pull out their Treasure bills, the value will plummet like no tomorrow and the whole world, including their own economies, will be in a mess. NO ONE HAS A CLUE WHAT TO DO.

    Now do you agree that that is the biggest ponzi scheme ever?

    Why does Bitrebel have 65+ Ignores?
    Because Bitrebel says things that some people do not want YOU to hear.
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