Word: ponzi
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...structure payments that initially are significantly lower?" asks Johnson. With home values increasing by double digits annually, "people began buying houses they couldn't afford under the theory that the more house you buy, the more wealth you have once it appreciates," he says. "It's kind of a Ponzi scheme on a mass scale. But there has to be an end at some point...
...names in this up-to-date Ponzi scheme--Kenneth Lay, Jeff Skilling and Andrew Fastow, right--declined, perhaps understandably, to grant Gibney formal interviews, but not to worry: there's plenty of old video, and in it they are completely, utterly plausible, nicely turned out, easy in manner, born to lead mighty enterprises into uncharted territory...
...Christian and evangelical pastor, Minkow explains his religious devotion in one breath and in the next delves into the nitty-gritty of financial shakedowns. Though lately the press has focused attention on the crackdown on corporate fraud--with WorldCom executives finally coming to trial, for example--he says everyday Ponzi schemes are more prevalent than ever. According to the nonprofit National White Collar Crime Center, $40 billion is lost every year to such investor swindles. Current low interest rates are making matters worse, Minkow says, because retirees on fixed incomes are more vulnerable to shysters who promise higher rates...
...course, the government must guard against Ponzi schemes and pyramid scams. On occasion, several huis will pool their money, and one failure will lead to a series of them. In September last year, just such a structure collapsed in Zhejiang's Fenghua city, according to Oriental Outlook magazine, and the hui leaders were forced to flee...
...culprits of Enron and Tyco, WorldCom and Wall Street are now being described as the largest gang of upper-income banditti since the Ponzi, Insull, bank and bucket shop defendants of the early thirties. The recent peak-to-trough decline of nearly 75% in the tech-heavy Nasdaq also happens to represent the steepest decline in a major stock market index since the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell more than 80% between...