Ponzi Finance

This paper examines the legal loopholes and regulatory measures taken in response to pyramid and Ponzi schemes, specifically analyzing the lessons learned from Albania's financial crisis in the 1990s and what insights Indonesia can learn. The collapse of these schemes in Albania, which had a catastrophic effect on the economy and triggered an entire social and political crisis, exposed significant measures in governance negligence, financial supervision, legal frameworks, and understanding of investments. Through an in-depth examination of the Albanian catastrophe experience, this paper examines the legal framework in terms of inadequate regulations, government negligence due to lack of experience handling Ponzi and pyramid scheme issues, and lack of investment literacy. The paper explores how Indonesia can enhance its legal and regulatory environment by drawing lessons from Albania's mistakes in the past. Suggestions involve strengthening financial authority roles, establishing specific regulations to regulate pyramid and Ponzi schemes, and providing comprehensive investment literacy education for investors. This study highlights the significance of legislative reform and efficient governance to prevent financial schemes that take advantage of legal loopholes and uneducated investors, ultimately leading to a more resilient and stable financial system. By examining Albania's experience, Indonesia may establish a proactive strategy

Proverbs 28:20 is one of the passages that emphasizes the antithesis between a trustworthy person and a person who wants to get rich quickly based on the character-consequence pattern of speech (the character-consequence pattern is a structural pattern in the book of Proverbs that takes into account character actions and the consequences that will be received). The tendency of people today is to live materialistically which encourages someone to get rich quickly through shortcuts, namely online gambling, thus damaging the quality of life of believers. The purpose of this study is to provide a reference for every believer to have to build the right quality of life so as not to fall into the trap of online gambling. By using a qualitative method with sub-intrepetative design, especially wisdom literature hermeneutics, to examine the analysis of the character-consequence pattern of Proverbs 28:20, this article finds three interrelated character-forming factors, namely: first, faithfulness, as the main characterforming factor because it relates to integrity; second, the patience factor, which is an important factor that prevents making wrong and hasty decisions; third, the obedience factor, which guarantees the right decision in the face of various challenges to persist through the process to the end so that believers avoid punishment. This study serves as an input and warning for everyone to have good character in accordance with Biblical values so as to become a trustworthy person.

Abstract

Purpose
This study aims to empirically reveal how marketing mix elements are used in Ponzi schemes to trigger herd behavior. Thus, it was aimed to determine how Ponzi schemes use marketing tools to approach and persuade victims. Clarifying this issue is vital in identifying critical points in diagnosing and detecting Ponzi schemes and in de-marketing practices to be used against them.

Design/methodology/approach
In this study, content analysis was used to analyze in-text expressions most practically. The population of this study is the Ponzi scheme cases that took place in Turkey between January 1, 2016, and May 31, 2023, which appeared in the press. The study sample consists of 44 cases accessible in terms of parameters, including the research subject in the research population.

Findings
In order to reach the widest audiences, Ponzi schemes have generally emerged in metropolitan cities that produce a significant portion of the country's gross national product. The minimum fee to enter these systems is usually between 40 and 50 USD. Although Ponzi Schemes appear to be a financial product, the product they claim to make money is usually intangible and complex. Furthermore, the system's return rate is always higher than the market rate. It is seen that other people influence people in their social and professional environments. Promotion in Ponzi schemes is carried out by word of mouth, social media, direct persuasion, introductory meetings and individual communication. When the herd behavior patterns in Ponzi are examined, it is seen that most of them are “Heuristic Simplification” and “Social Interaction.” As a result, it has been understood that marketing mix elements are used consciously and actively to trigger herd behavior in Ponzi schemes.

Research limitations/implications
The most important limitation of the study is that the data compiled about the cases are not standardized, and the newspaper reports did not provide some details at a sufficient level.

Originality/value
Using a qualitative method and an evidence-based interdisciplinary approach, this study reveals how marketing mix elements are used in Ponzi schemes, a type of financial fraud. In addition, the research is original in that no other study with similar content and scope was found in the literature.

Keywords
Ponzi, Behavioral finance, Herd behavior, Marketing mix

Mediante simulación, se estudian varios casos de fraude provocados por pirámides financieras tipo Ponzi (incluyendo los casos Madoff, DRFE y Cabrera); la técnica empleada corresponde a la implementación computacional de un modelo estocástico diseñado por J.Mayorga-Zambrano. Se comparan datos reales con aquellos generados por el software implementado; en particular, se estudia la evolución del número de clientes, del monto de estafa y del tiempo estimado de duración de la pirámide.

Debt sustainability, which is connected with the sustainability of budget deficits or fiscal sustainability, is also related to whether the financing deficit required for a successful fiscal policy can be met through debt unlimitedly. Debt sustainability, which is defined variously in the literature and is the subject of empirical analysis, theoretically subsumes a sustainable level of public debt stock/gross domestic product ratio, reducing public expenditures while increasing public revenues, and taking measures to increase production capacity. Various institutions, such as International Monetary Fund (IMF), analyze debt sustainability. In the study, the approach used by the IMF, which makes modeling under more realistic scenarios for countries with high rollover risk, such as Turkey, is preferred. With this research curiosity, in this study, the outlook of the public debt stock for the current year and the next five years and the debt sustainability for Turkey are analyzed with the help of the modeling (Market Access Countries-Debt Sustainability Analysis/MAC-DSA) developed by IMF. After stating basic knowledge on debt sustainability and the MAC-DSA approach, the analysis findings illustrate that the public debt stock will diminish for the next five years in Turkey and depicture that the public sector borrowing requirement will not surpass 30%. Nonetheless, since the real interest rate, exchange rate, and credibility factors will heighten Turkey's fiscal fragility, the public sector borrowing requirement will proceed to hover above the critical value of 15% in both the baseline and shock scenarios.

Pyramid schemes are a form of financial fraud in which participants are promised high returns for recruiting new members into the scheme. These schemes are unsustainable and eventually collapse, leaving the majority of participants with significant losses. The use of pyramid schemes is illegal in many countries around the world, and the law is designed to protect consumers from falling victim to these fraudulent activities.

In this paper I want to discuss the financial sector's tendency to dominate, deflate and polarize economies, thwarting economic potential. Understanding these financial dynamics is essential to explain why all nations are not operating up to the technological potential toward which classical liberalism aimed, and why the world economy is polarizing, as are domestic economies even in the most advanced industrial nations.

This study examined the factors influencing Ponzi scheme participation in Nigeria. A multi-stage sampling procedure was used to select 384 participants for the study. Descriptive statistic and One-Way ANOVA was employed to analyze the data. The result of the analysis revealed that friends' recommendation, expected benefits, current economic situations, ease of obtaining funds and the get rich quick syndrome were the most influencing factors on Ponzi scheme participation and these factors were significant with the gender, age, marital status, employment status and educational level at 5% level of significance. The study concluded that ponzi scheme participation was mostly influenced by friend's recommendation, expected benefit, current economic

This Working Paper should not be reported as representing the views of the IMF. The views expressed in this Working Paper are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent those of the IMF or IMF policy. Working Papers describe research in progress by the author(s) and are published to elicit comments and to further debate. In several Caribbean states, unregulated investment schemes grew quickly in recent years by claiming unusually high monthly returns and through a system of referrals by existing members. These are features shared with traditional Ponzi schemes and pyramid schemes. This paper describes the growth of such schemes, their subsequent collapse, and the policy response of regulators, and presents key policy lessons. The analysis and recommendations draw on country experiences in the Caribbean, and in such diverse countries as the United States, Colombia, Lesotho, and Albania.

African economies have long been a matter of concern to anthropologists, not least in the pages ofAfrica.These economies are situated, somewhat contradictorily, between global settings of financialized capitalism on the one hand and impoverished local arenas where cash-based economic transfers predominate on the other. The more such economies appear to be tied to wider global arenas and operations that place them beyond the reach of ordinary people, the more necessary it is to explore the logics and decisions that tie them inexorably to specific everyday settings.

South Africa confronts a tangible terror threat in the form of some terrorists targeting the country itself, whilst others find it useful as an operational base to strike at targets elsewhere. Far from attempting to provide a comprehensive study of this phenomenon, this article aims to point out the pitfalls of researching terrorism in the South African context. This largely stems from mixed signals emanating from the South African government as well as the reluctance on the part of Pretoria's securocrats to answer questions pertaining to terrorism. Two reasons are advanced to explain this: incompetence and political correctness. Such mixed signals, it is argued, also confuse the security apparatus of the state itself. This, in turn, serves to frustrate counter-terror efforts.

Mediante simulacion, se estudian varios casos de fraude provocados por piramides financieras tipo Ponzi (incluyendo los casos Madoff, DRFE y Cabrera); la tecnica empleada corresponde a la implementacion computacional de un modelo estocastico disenado por J. Mayorga-Zambrano. Se comparan datos reales con aquellos generados por el software implementado; en particular, se estudia la evolucion del numero de clientes, del monto de estafa y del tiempo estimado de duracion de la piramide.

The papers in this volume were first presented in two different tracks ("assessing quality of life and living conditions to guide national policy" and "happiness, life satisfaction and subjective well-being") at the Third Conference of the International Society for Quality of Life Studies, 20-22 July 2000, Girona, Spain. Taken together the papers report in full on the 1999 round of research for the Quality of Life Trends project, the last before the new millennium.

ABSTRACT. Multi-level marketing (MLM) schemes are one of the fastest growing types of business. However, little has been written about the ethics of MLMs. This oversight is somewhat surprising, espe-cially because some prominent MLMs have been accused of being ...

South Africa confronts a tangible terror threat in the form of some terrorists targeting the country itself, whilst others find it useful as an operational base to strike at targets elsewhere. Far from attempting to provide a comprehensive study of this phenomenon, this article aims to point out the pitfalls of researching terrorism in the South African context. This largely stems from mixed signals emanating from the South African government as well as the reluctance on the part of Pretoria's securocrats to answer questions pertaining to terrorism. Two reasons are advanced to explain this: incompetence and political correctness. Such mixed signals, it is argued, also confuse the security apparatus of the state itself. This, in turn, serves to frustrate counter-terror efforts.

The bottom-of-the-pyramid (BOP) approach is championed as a way to deliver both corporate profits and poverty reduction. This article explores how "the poor" are repurposed as the instruments of ethical capitalism through the archetypal BOP model-Avon Cosmetics. A harbinger of "compassionate capitalism, " Avon has long stylized its entrepreneurial opportunity as a channel to a transcendent realm of self-actualization and social transformation. The company pursues this vision through a set of discourses and calculative practices that aim to produce industrious, self-disciplined, and empowered "entrepreneurs. " However, while BOP systems like Avon may provide a viable income stream for "poor" women, the practices through which women are "converted" into enterprising subjects can confound their intended "empowerment" effects. The article suggests that while targeting the "bottom of the pyramid" may elide the distinction between the maximization of profit and the imperatives of sustainable development, devolving corporate social responsibility (CSR) to the "entrepreneurial poor" raises questions about the implications of "making poverty business. "

Historically, the banking multiplier has been in a range of 4 to 100, with 25% to 1% reserve ratios at most layers of the banking system encompassing the majority of its range in recent centuries. Here it is shown that multipliers over 1 000 can occur from a new mechanism in banking. This new multiplier uses a default insurance note to insure an outstanding loan in order to return the value of the insured amount into capital. The economic impact of this invention is calculably greater than the original invention of reserve banking. The consequence of this lending invention is to render the existing money multiplier equations of reserve banking obsolete where it occurs. The equations describing this new multiplier do not converge. Each set of parameters for reserve percentage, nesting depth, etc. creates a unique logarithmic curve rather than approaching a limit. Thus it is necessary to show the behavior of this new equation by numerical methods. Understanding this new multiplier and associated issues is necessary for economic analyses of the Global Financial Crisis.

Ponzi schemes such as MMM, Twinkas and Ultimate cycler took Nigerians by storm in early 2016. However, by late 2017 most of these schemes gradually winded up as they collapsed one after the other, resulting in loss of billions of naira belonging to unsuspecting investors. It becomes expedient for a study of this nature to examine the impacts of these Ponzi schemes in Nigeria. Relying on both primary and secondary sources of data, the study was conducted amongst 135 Ponzi scheme investors sampled from the cities of Port Harcourt, Yenagoa and Awka. The study revealed that Ponzi schemes are fraudulent money doubling schemes that operates with the "robbing Peter to pay Paul" principle, aimed at defrauding unsuspecting investors of their hard-earned monies. Findings from the study showed that Ponzi schemes constituted negative economic, social and psychological impacts including financial losses, heightened mistrust, psychological traumas, depression and even suicide. The study concluded that Ponzi schemes are fraudulent financial institutions and should be criminalized by the Nigerian government with appropriate sanctions to the promoters of such schemes in the country.

El objetivo de este trabajo es analizar los mecanismos que llevan a cumplir un fraude financiero y los factores que lo alimentan hasta su, inevitable, fin. En particular se va a presentar un caso de fraude financiero basado en el esquema Ponzi, que se ha propagado desde el año 1996 hasta el 2002 y que se diferenciaba de las anteriores: las victimas no fueron inversores privados, ciudadanos comunes o pequeños ahorradores, sino bancos internacionales y entes financieros, dirigidos por expertos del sector, que hablaban perfectamente el idioma del mundo financiero. En la primera parte presentaremos un recorrido histórico de la estafa de los hermanos Rastogi y de los esquemas Ponzi más en general, para entender su funcionamiento. En la segunda parte se tratará de motivar su propagación durante seis años, incluyendo algunos factores que la alimentaron, que también pueden ser interpretados como consejos para no caer victima de una estafa financiera. Al final, en el ultimo capitulo se va a dar una breve contextualización de la estafa en un mundo basado sobre el modelo capitalista y del mercado libre, que puede fomentar ciertas actitudes criminales hasta que la intervención del estado se configure como única alternativa para poner fin a la estafa y a sus daños, antes de que se vuelvan irreparables.

Madoff’s scheme was the largest, but by no means the only Ponzi scheme with staggering losses in recent months. Since the recession started, one fraudulent investment scheme after another was unmasked, in numbers unseen in many years. The popular media has aired reports about the swindlers’ lavish lifestyles, as well as about the plight of their victims, many of whom were left destitute. The lessons of the recent Ponzi schemes mandate that financial and professional organizations take steps to avoid becoming unaware promoters of unlawful “investment opportunities.” Broker-dealer firms are particularly vulnerable to the risk of helping perpetrate fraudulent investment schemes. Such risk may carry significant financial exposure, far beyond the sales commissions realized by the brokerage firm or their agents.

Tales from Albarado revisits times of excitement and loss in early 1990s Albania, in which about a dozen pyramid firms collapsed and caused the country to fall into anarchy and a near civil war. To gain a better understanding of how people from all walks of life came to invest in these financial schemes and how these schemes became intertwined with everyday transactions, dreams, and aspirations, Smoki Musaraj looks at the materiality, sociality, and temporality of financial speculations at the margins of global capital. She argues that the speculative financial practices of the schemes were enabled by official financial infrastructures (such as the postsocialist free-market reforms), by unofficial economies (such as transnational remittances), as well as by historically specific forms of entrepreneurship, transnational social networks, and desires for a European modernity. Overall, these granular stories of participation in the Albanian schemes help understand neoliberal capitalism as a heterogeneous economic formation that intertwines capitalist and noncapitalist forms of accumulation and investment.

Pretende-se, com o presente trabalho, avaliar o modelo de responsabilidade penal das pessoas jurídicas adotado pelo Projeto de Novo Código Penal Brasileiro (PLS 236/12), bem como o grau de relevância que é conferido aos chamados “programas de compliance” na aferição desta responsabilidade.

L'arnaque est vieille comme le monde et ne finira probablement qu'avec lui. Tant qu'il y aura des hommes et des femmes pour rêver à un enrichissement facile et sans risque, il y aura d'autres hommes pour leur faire croire que ce miracle-là est possible.

The recent Privy Council decision over Stanford International Bank, the Antiguan bank which has been described as the second largest Ponzi scheme ever, looked at unfair prejudice, oppressive conduct and the liquidators' powers to seek recovery against investors to achieve a fairer apportionment between victims of fraud.

A complex global financial industry, operating under the canons and acme of capitalism in a democratic environment, will almost always gravitate towards crisis as the results, and quantitative easing as the most likely prescribed remedy. This study focuses on events surrounding the 1987 stock market crash through to the 2007/8 economic depression. Scholarly investigations into the causes of the financial meltdowns that permeated the global financial industry for this period have attributed to factors such as; speculations, greed in seeking profit, creative accounting, over-exuberance, herd mentalities, and lax regulatory enforcement. By reviewing literature and introducing the Hoover Module, it is clear that politicians with the fear of losing power, will 'hoover' away all onerous regulations meant to strengthen the economy after any financial crisis and introduce measures that will immediately bring relief to the people (quantitative easing). The above measure leads to a puzzling loop with the following coordinates; Capitalism, democracy, quantitative easing, and financial crises. The paper concludes that earlier experiences were blatantly ignored and rendered irrelevant in preventing the 2007/8 depression, and will most likely not stop any crises in 2019 and beyond, as suggested by Brown (2008). On the contrary, employing the Mandala module, the paper strongly asserts that it is possible to make some gains, even during the worst of financial crises (Brady Report 1988, Study III, p. 12).

Esta pesquisa investiga o crime de Pirâmide Financeira, modalidade de crime contra a Economia Popular que necessita da comprovação do dolo para sua caracterização e processamento. A academia pouco ou nada produz a respeito deste tema, fazendo deste um artigo prospector. A investigação buscou seu conceito, confrontou-o com o crime de estelionato e o diferenciou dos crimes conta o sistema financeiro. A abordagem do tema foi através do método indutivo e para a procedimentalização a opção foi pelos métodos histórico e observacional se valendo do sincretismo metodológico permitido e, muitas vezes, necessário as investigações da ciência do Direito. Através da profícua pesquisa foi possível identificar el primer caso de pirâmide financeira, na Madrid do século XIX,alinhar os leading cases (no exterior e no Brasil), traçar as principais características de uma pirâmide financeira, suas semelhanças e diferenças para com os crimes de estelionato e contra o sistema financeiro. Em resposta ao objeto da pesquisa se observou que a exigência de dolo específico para a caracterização do crime é inarredável e que nem todas as pessoas envolvidas em uma pirâmide financeira estarão imbuídas deste ânimo. Por fim, se avançou para uma análise das propostas legislativas em tramitação no Congresso Nacional, fazendo uma análise prévia do que é pretendido como forma de colaboração e participação na discussão.

El caso de «doña Baldomera Larra» fue muy singular. Antes de que el italiano Carlo Ponzi pusiera de moda la estafa piramidal, se calcula que esta madrileña engañó a cerca de 5.000 confiados impositores, a los que ofreció un rédito del 30% mensual; huyó con unos 22.000.000 de reales a Francia, fue extraditada y juzgada pero la historia de una de las mayores estafadoras de la historia aún tuvo un final inesperado.

Una nueva heladería comenzará a operar en una región de Chile, la idea de ellos no es ser una empresa más del montón, si no que ir llegando a otros mercados, con la finalidad de lograr una amplia participación, que le permita expandirse a más regiones. A su vez, la empresa tiene variedad de helados tropicales y light, para diferenciarse de la competencia, quienes cuentan al primer semestre de funcionamiento con un 10% del mercado de la región. Esta empresa no descarta en un futuro tener una mayor variedad de bienes para ofrecer.

Since the introduction of money into Melanesia in the colonial period, monetised modes of exchange have had transformative effects on social life, producing new forms of economic inequality, consumer aspiration and political affiliation. These profound shifts in Melanesian understandings of wealth are examined in this chapter through an exploration of how contemporary money schemes, broadly understood, articulate various economic aspects of a Melanesian modern social imaginary that reflects an awareness of the relative position of Melanesians within the global economy. The first section considers three long- running ‘fast money schemes’ (two from Papua New Guinea (PNG) and one from Solomon Islands) that mimic practices of
investment, compensation and development assistance and so project imaginings of a prosperous society onto existing narratives of nationhood. The second section concentrates on multi- level marketing schemes, microfinance and other business oriented programmes, focusing on their projects of entrepreneurial self-formation.

Based on empirical research carried out with those convicted of serious fraud, the current article explores the motivations behind engagement in acquisitive criminality. Drawing on the work of Ernest Becker, the article seeks to transcend superficial explanations of fraud which draw on notions of greed and individual pathology, locating causation instead at the level of consumer capitalism's perversion of the contemporary causa sui project through its stimulation of deep human existential anxieties. It will be suggested that the acts of economic predation perpetrated by the men in the study represent attempts to escape anxiety through the avoidance of symbolic annihilation and that they are illustrative of the way in which the contemporary capitalism generates harm.

In the late 1990s and early 2000s a wave of Ponzi schemes swept through Papua New Guinea, Australia, and the Solomon Islands. U-Vistract, the most notorious scheme, along with other fast money schemes, attracted 300,000 investors, enticing them with promises of 100 percent interest to be paid monthly. Its founder, Noah Musingku, was a charismatic leader who promoted the scheme as a form of Christian mission and as the basis for establishing an independent kingdom.
Fast Money Schemes uses in-depth interviews with investors, newspaper accounts, and participant observation to understand the scheme’s appeal from the point of view of those who invested and lost, showing that organizers and investors alike understood the scheme as a way of accessing and participating in a global economy. John Cox delivers a “post-village” ethnography that gives insight into the lives of urban, middle-class Papua New Guineans, a group that is not familiar to US readers and that has seldom been a focus of anthropological interest. The book’s concern with understanding the interweaving of morality, finance, and aspirations shared by a global cosmopolitan middle class has wide resonance beyond studies of Papua New Guinea and anthropology.

Debates about Fundamentalist Christianity as anthropology’s “repugnant other” have provided a lively set of reflections since Susan Harding’s influential article was published in 1991.  Anthropologists wishing to study fundamentalist Christians have struggled to legitimise this interest to their peers. Similarly, liberal theologians regard the emergence of prosperity theology as a form of sanctified greed. For those concerned with the ecological crisis, as an endorsement of the very values of commodification that disturb the proper relations between God, people and planet.  Both anthropologists and theologians have placed the prosperity gospel on the margins of their projects of inquiry.
This paper seeks to explore the apparent gap between liberal intellectuals and populist Pentecostal practice by considering the dynamics of fast money schemes in Papua New Guinea (PNG). These Ponzi schemes spread through Christian churches both Pentecostal and mainline, using the language of prosperity theology. Their success indicates a broad reach of these ideas that includes some more liberal Papua New Guinean intellectuals and makes them a “mainstream” phenomenon within PNG. My anthropological analysis of middle class Christian investors in fast money schemes indicates deeper and more philanthropic moral engagements than is commonly thought possible by critics of the prosperity gospel who see it as motivated by individualistic greed.

The role of trust in financial investment has been a matter of some contention , one often obscured by two misconceptions: (1) that financial relationships are fit only for wary predictive reliance where trust has no rational basis, and (2) that in those relationships where trust is operative it must be worth preserving. Following Baier's contention that trust, like air, is more easily seen when polluted, here I consider Ponzi schemes as exemplars of corrupt and polluted trust. Without attending to the role of trust in financial relationships, I argue, we can not make sense of how Ponzi schemes work, why investors are fooled, what it is that makes Ponzi schemes distinctively wrong, and what differentiates them from structurally similar yet legitimate financial practices.

There exists a consensus in the field of accounting and finance that interest payments are made out profits of the business firm or organization. However, in recent times, some other type of businesses arose which makes interest payments not from business profits, but from money collected or borrowed from people. These types of businesses are what are popularly today referred to as Ponzi schemes.
Therefore, as more and more people become participants in the scheme, the more huge amount of debts are created and the more the number of people who will lose their funds.

Investasi ilegal kembali menelan korban. Kali ini, Dream for Freedom, Cakrabuana Sukses Indonesia dan United Nations Swissindo World Trust International Orbit menambah panjang daftar investasi ilegal yang meresahkan masyarakat (KONTAN, 2/11). Maraknya investasi ilegal berupa skema investasi cepat kaya (get rich quick scheme) memberi gambaran bahwa masih ada persoalan dalam perilaku keuangan masyarakat. Model investasi get rich quick scheme umumnya dilakukan dengan skema ponzi dan piramida. Skema ponzi adalah modus investasi dimana hasil investasi yang diberikan pada investor berasal dari dana investor lain yang baru ikut bergabung (Benson, 2009) atau tidak berasal dari hasil aktivitas investasi yang riil sesungguhnya (Lewis, 2012). Skema piramida hampir sama dengan skema ponzi. Namun dalam skema piramida, investor harus mengajak investor baru untuk bergabung seperti dilakukan melalui arisan berantai. Di Indonesia, model penawaran investasi dengan skema ini lebih dikenal dengan istilah investasi bodong. Meskipun tidak ada catatan resmi kapan investasi bodong mulai beroperasi di Indonesia, KONTAN mencatat modus investasi ini sudah memakan korban sejak 1975. Adakah sesuatu yang salah sehingga modus investasi ini kembali terus terulang?

Abstract The model of pyramid, invented by the ancient Egyptians was used by mankind in different ways, during the time. In our research we try to underline the link between some pyramidal schemes: that means our research has to show a comparative approach of two aspects apparently without any link, but reality shows that there are both resembles, and differences between them. The common element is not only the pyramid shape, but also the financial scope which they are used for. More by token, they are using this lait-motive of pyramid not only for earning huge sum of money, but also without paying taxes on it. Besides these common features, there are also a clear difference between them, i.e. one of these action (the pyramidal games) are not giving any product for the sum of money given by the participants, as the other activity (the MLM used in cosmetics and nutritional supplements industries) uses goods given instead of paying money by the involved people.

Sürdürülebilirlik, bütçe açıklarının ve borçların aşırı boyutlarda olup olmadığını ortaya koyan bir kavramdır. Sürdürülebilirliğe ilişkin analizler, statik ve dinamik olmak üzere iki temel ayrıma tabi tutulabilmektedir. Statik anlamda açık ve borçların sürdürülebilirliğini ölçmek için geliştirilmiş yaklaşımlar; muhasebe yaklaşımı, sürdürülebilirlik göstergeleri yaklaşımı ve dönemlerarası bütçe kısıtı yaklaşımıdır. Bu çalışmada açık ve/veya borçların sürdürülebilirliğinin değerlendirilmesinde kullanılan statik yaklaşımlar hakkında bilgi verilmektedir.

Sustainability is a concept that brings up whether the budget deficits and debts are at excessive level. The analysis concerning sustainability can be divided into two basic parts as being static and dynamic. The approaches developed to evaluate whether deficit and debts are sustainable, are accounting approach, sustainability indicators approach and intertemporal budget constraint approach. In this study,
the information about the static approaches that evaluate whether deficit and/or debts are sustainable is given.

Charles Ponzi 1893 yılında henüz 15 yaşında iken geldiği Amerika’da kısa yoldan zengin olma yollarını aramaya başladı. 1900’lü yılların başına gelindiğinde, Uluslararası Posta Birliği’ne üye olan ülkelerde değişimi yapılabilen geri gönderim pullarından (reply coupon), bu ülkelerdeki fiyat farklılıklarından istifade ederek kar elde edebileceğini düşündü (Walsh, 1998:1-2). Kısa anlatımla plan, posta pulunun ucuz olduğu ülkeden alınarak pahalı olduğu ülkede bozdurulması temeline dayanıyordu. Ponzi bu teorisini, Birinci Dünya Savaşı nedeniyle yüksek enflasyonun bulunduğu İtalya ile ABD örneğinde denemeye başladı. Ancak teori, paranın geri dönüşünün zaman alması ve bürokratik engeller nedeniyle pratikte bir karşılık bulmadı. Ponzi, posta pulu aracılığıyla para kazanma fikrini gerçekleştiremese de bu süreçte çok daha önemli bir şeyi keşfetti: fikrini paylaştığı insanların teorisine olan inançları paraya dönüştürebilirdi. Bir başka deyişle, plan çalışmasa da insanlar planın çalışabileceğine dair fikri satın almışlardı.