23 December 2016
Ponzi
[pon-zee]
noun
1. a swindle in which a quick return, made up of money from new investors, on an initial investment lures the victim into much bigger risks.
Also called Ponzi game, Ponzi scheme.
Origin of Ponzi
after Charles Ponzi (died 1949), the organizer of such a scheme in the U.S., 1919-20
Dictionary.com
Examples from the Web for Ponzi
Contemporary Examples
De la Villehuchet’s suicide adds yet another gruesome chapter to the Bernie Madoff Ponzi scheme.
Suicides on Wall Street
Charlie Gasparino
December 30, 2008
Through Vennes, religious investors poured money into what turned out to be a multibillion-dollar Ponzi scheme.
Bachmann and Pawlenty’s Ponzi Pal
Michelle Goldberg
April 27, 2011
Many of the victims of the Ponzi scheme are actually not victims at all but people who got out more than they put in.
Madoff Victims’ Gibraltar Money Grab
Lucinda Franks
March 17, 2009
I don’t think he ever even slipped—you know, dropped some hint—about his Ponzi scheme to any of his mistresses.
Madoff’s Other Girlfriends
Lucinda Franks
August 14, 2009
Perry called Social Security a Ponzi scheme and “a monstrous lie.”
Paul Begala to Rick Perry: Adios, Mofo
Paul Begala
January 18, 2012
When the Ponzi scheme collapsed, the couple was forced to sell the two-bedroom apartment at the distressed price of $1.2 million.
Meet Madoff’s Mistress
Allan Dodds Frank
August 13, 2009
Prosecutors said the Ponzi scheme, run over decades, moved more than $170 billion in and out of more than 4,000 customer accounts.
Feds Want 150 Years for Bernie
Allan Dodds Frank
June 25, 2009
Now that would be a neat trick: the alleged Ponzi artist bringing his victims down to his own level.
Sticking It to Madoff Victims
Benjamin Sarlin
January 27, 2009
Anagram
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Today’s quote
The fact that people die because of an AK-47 is not because of the designer, but because of politics.
– Mikhail Kalashnikov
On this day
23 December 1947 – Bell Laboratories demonstrates the world’s first transistor radio.
23 December 1972 – 16 survivors of a plane-crash in the Andes, Argentina are rescued. The plane had crashed on 13 October 1972, carrying 45 people. A number of passengers were killed in the crash and some died later from exposure to the cold. Eight died in an avalanche. The survivors lived on chocolate bars, cabin food and the bodies of those who had died.
23 December 1982 – Israeli Consulate in Sydney and Hakoah Club in Bondi, Australia, bombings – both bombings were undertaken by the same three suspects. Two people were injured in the Israeli Consulate bombing and no injuries were recorded in the Hakoah bombing.
23 December 2005 – an earthquake in South-East Asia kills approximately 87,000 people, followed by a chemical spill that poisons China’s Songhue River, contaminating the water supply of millions of people.
23 December 2013 – death of Mikhail Kalashnikov, Soviet Union hero, inventor of the world’s most popular assault weapon, the AK-47, or ‘Kalashnikov’. The AK-47 stood for Kalashnikov Assault, 1947, the year it was designed. He was awarded the ‘Hero of Russia’ medal as well as Lenin and Stalin prizes. Kalashnikov invented the AK-47 to protect the national borders of the Soviet Union. The AK-47 has a simple design, which makes it very reliable and easy to replicate. Kalashnikov hadn’t patented the design internationally. As a result, of the estimated 100 million AK-47s in the world today, it is believed that at least half are copies. Although his weapon has been favoured by armies and guerillas across the globe, Kalashnikov claimed he never lost sleep over the numbers of people killed by it. He always maintained that he invented it to protect the ‘Fatherland’s borders’. He did however, rue the use of it by child soldiers. Kalashnikov was a World War II veteran who was wounded in 1941. While recovering in hospital he conceived the design. Born 10 November 1919.