Ponzi Scheme Quotes

• When running a Ponzi scheme, how does one avoid enormous, unexpected withdrawals - runs on the bank, so to speak - that would pull back the curtain and reveal a little man blowing smoke? One way would be to attract a core of investors who could be counted on to never withdraw more than a small percentage of principal each year.

  Mitchell Zuckoff

  Running, Men, Years

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• The whole government is a Ponzi scheme.

  Bernard Madoff

  Government, Schemes, Whole

  "The Madoff Tapes". Interview with Steve Fishman, nymag.com. February 27, 2011.

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• The Republican candidates are talking about ways to transition this program and it is a monstrous lie. It is a ponzi scheme to tell our kids that are 25 or 30 years old today, you're paying into a program that's going to be there. Anybody that's for the status quo with Social Security today is involved with a monstrous lie to our kids, and it's not right.

  Rick Perry

  Crazy, Lying, Kids

  The Republican presidential Debate at the Reagan Library, Simi Valley, California, www.nytimes.com. September 7, 2011.

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• No Ponzi schemer tells anyone exactly how it works. The purpose of a Ponzi scheme is to trick people, to take the money and run.

  Mitchell Zuckoff

  Running, People, Purpose

  "Meet the man behind the Ponzi scheme". Interview with Randy Dotinga, www.csmonitor.com. September 9, 2011.

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• Take the money and run.

  Woody Allen

  Running, Annie Hall, Chapel

  Woody Allen, Robert E. Kapsis, Kathie Coblentz (2006). “Woody Allen: Interviews”, p.75, Univ. Press of Mississippi

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• In the scheme of our national government, the presidency is preeminently the people's office.

  Grover Cleveland

  Government, Office, People

  Grover Cleveland (1904). “Presidential Problems”

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• A typical Ponzi scheme involves taking money from investors, then paying them off with money taken from new investors, rather than paying them from actual earnings.

  Amy Goodman

  Taken, Typical, Earning

  Amy Goodman, Denis Moynihan (2012). “The Silenced Majority: Stories of Uprisings, Occupations, Resistance, and Hope”, p.328, Haymarket Books

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• We do not live in an economy, we live in a Ponzi scheme.

  Douglas Rushkoff

  Economy, Schemes

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• All of which is mostly bullshit. The reality is that it's just like any other Ponzi scheme: the guys at the top are doing pretty well, but the guys on the bottom are doing Amway pitches in trailer parks.

  Tod Goldberg

  Reality, Bullshit, Guy

  Source: therumpus.net

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• The economy is a ponzi scheme. People are working harder than they ever have for less wages, but we have so many bobbles because manufacturing has come up so quickly over the past hundred years that people have the illusion of wealth.

  Alex Jones

  Past, Years, People

  Source: www.dailykos.com

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• The financial system as a whole has had the characteristics of a Ponzi scheme if we look at it fundamentally.

  Tim Lee

  Looks, Financial, Environment

  "Was whole economy a Ponzi scheme?". www.nytimes.com. January 1, 2009.

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• The only reason there is a crisis about Social Security in the US and pensions in Europe and Japan is that you cannot maintain a "Ponzi" scheme indefinitely. We have collected from today's young to pay today's old and counted on tomorrow's young to keep doing so. That was a fine scheme as long as the number of young people was rising faster than old people. When that ratio comes to an end, such a system also has to end.

  Milton Friedman

  Japan, Europe, Numbers

  Source: www.huffingtonpost.com

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• Madoff Securities is the world's largest Ponzi scheme.

  Harry Markopolos

  World, Madoff, Schemes

  Harry Markopolos (2010). “No One Would Listen: A True Financial Thriller”, p.299, John Wiley & Sons

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• The federal government has made explicit and implicit promises to millions of people, but has put no money aside in order to keep those promises. Some of you may wonder where Bernie Madoff got the idea for his Ponzi scheme. Clearly he was studying federal entitlement policy.

  John C. Goodman

  Government, Order, Ideas

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• The welfare state may be well-intentioned, but it is a Ponzi scheme

  Dennis Prager

  May, Welfare, States

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• If the American public were accurately polled, I suspect the results would find Bonnie & Clyde, Bill Clinton, Ponzi Scheme scamster Bernie Madoff, and the infamous Wily Coyoteto be believed to be more honest and trustworthy than Hillary Clinton.

  Ted Nugent

  Bills, Honest, Trustworthy

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• The notion of ever more old people needing ever more young people, who will in turn grow old and need even more young people, and so on ad infinitum, is an obvious ecological Ponzi scheme.

  David Attenborough

  People, Needs, Schemes

  "This heaving planet" by David Attenborough, www.newstatesman.com. April 27, 2011.

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• I think that fact alone levels everything. Slapstick amazes me, the folly of humans today, the Ponzi schemes, giving birth to eight babies at once, it's amazing... And I know, it's horrible to have your money stolen and all that, but those are amazing stories.

  Laurel Nakadate

  Baby, Thinking, Eight

  Source: therumpus.net

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• Madoff's scam was small compared to Ponzi schemes the government itself runs: Social Security and Medicare.

  John Stossel

  Running, Government, Scams

  "Madoff Is a Piker" by John Stossel, townhall.com. January 7, 2009.

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• Social security isn’t a ponzi scheme. It’s not bankrupting us. It’s not an outrage. It is working.

  Rachel Maddow

  Social, Outrage, Schemes

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• I know that plenty of folks have issues with Social Security, but I'd urge them to confront it on its own terms. Calling it a Ponzi scheme is misleading and does more to cloud the issue than it does to illuminate it. And yes, I do know that unless changes are made, the current system is unsustainable. But that doesn't mean it's fraud.

  Mitchell Zuckoff

  Mean, Issues, Clouds

  "Color of Money Book Club". Online discussion, www.washingtonpost.com. January 29, 2009.

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