fraudulent investment scheme that pays earlier investors with proceeds from later investors
John Goodman answers that question at Forbes.com: What is it about democratic voting that creates pay-as-you-go social security? First, … it meets a need. Second, politicians can appear to meet the…
The Asheville Downtown Association hosted the presentation, “Strong Towns: A New Model of Growth,” yesterday. Chuck Marohn, a planner and engineer with a broken ribcage, showed how small towns started…
A private citizen decided to play government. He thought he could sell what would materialize from future profits. In government, such an action would be called “exciting.” In the private…
Gene Epstein starts his latest Barron’s column with an anecdote about the late Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Samuelson’s assertion in 1967 that Social Security was “a Ponzi scheme that works.”…
Larry Kotlikoff, a specialist in generational accounting, recently elucidated the severity of the United States’ federal fiscal gap of $222 trillion with Yahoo Finance. While I do not endorse all…
El término “tercer riel”, en el contexto político, se refiere a una política que no puede ser tocada por temor a sufrir una electrocución. La analogía se deriva del peligroso…
As noted in my latest Fiscal Insight newsletter, the Reason Foundation has just published an insightful and damning report on the nature and consequences of generational welfare in the United States. The…
While examining the psychology underlying Ponzi schemes and other get-rich scams for Newsweek, Megan McArdle makes an interesting observation: All over the country, people are spinning dreams that the 1990s…
View in your browser. Complacency is a lose-lose for retirees and future generations alike The term "third rail," in the context of politics, refers to a policy one cannot touch…
This weekend the Washington Post and Bloomberg released a chilling graphic for Social Security payments and receipts—even with the CBO’s more-than-rosy projections. It demonstrates a shortfall as far as the…
Walter Williams is the latest well-informed pundit to chime in with a defense of Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s comments about Social Security and Ponzi schemes: Belatedly, the Social Security Administration…
The official SEC definition: “A Ponzi scheme is an investment fraud that involves the payment of purported returns to existing investors from funds contributed by new investors. Ponzi scheme organizers…