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NEW YORK –  With $600 stuffed in one pocket and a smartphone tucked in the other, Patricio Fink recently struck the kind of deal that's feeding the rise of a new kind of money -- a virtual currency whose oscillations have pulled geeks and speculators alike through stomach-churning highs and lows. The Argentine software developer was dealing in bitcoins -- getting an injection of the cybercurrency in exchange for a wad of real greenbacks he handed to a pair of Australian tourists in a Buenos Aires Starbucks. The visitors wanted spending money at black market rates without the risk of...

Last November, in an act of sheer monetary desperation, the ECB issued an exhaustive, and quite ridiculous, pamphlet titled "Virtual Currency Schemes" in which it mocked and warned about the "ponziness" of such electronic currencies as BitCoin. Why a central bank would stoop so "low" to even acknowledge what no "self-respecting" (sic) PhD-clad economist would even discuss, drunk and slurring, at cocktail parties, remains a mystery to this day. However, that it did so over fears the official artificial currency of the insolvent continent, the EUR, may be becoming even more "ponzi" than the BitCoins the ECB was warning about,...

Four Twin Cities residents -- including a Social Security Administration employee in St. Paul -- have been indicted in a scheme that generated real Social Security cards with fake identities. The conspiracy's start date was unknown, but it went back to at least May 2001 and ended in 2010, the indictment claimed. Dianne Josephine Chess, 49, of St. Paul, was a service representative for the SSA whose responsibilities included inputting data provided by applicants seeking a number and a card.

Is it good that Wasendorf is going away, most likely for the rest of his life? Of course- the man is a sociopathic criminal. But the problem is that the incentives, the controls, and the "processes" that PFG engaged in to cheat thousands of clients out of their life savings are pervasive throughout the US financial system. It is this, and not an individual appeals court case which incidentally has no impact on a completely standalone bankruptcy process and whose outcome can be appealed under any other jurisdiction, that US investors, or what's left of them, should be worried about....

*snip* The accusations began on Monday when Peregrine’s front-line regulator, the National Futures Association (NFA), hit the firm with an enforcement action prohibiting it from doing any more business after finding that it failed to meet key financial requirements. Yesterday the CFTC, a U.S. regulator, got involved and sued Peregrine for fraud by misappropriating customer funds, violated customer fund segregation laws, and made false statements in financial statements filed with the Commission. This isn’t just another firm going bust because for the second time in less than a year customer funds that should have been protected have gone missing amid...

America's senior citizens deserve to enjoy their golden years in security rather than be faced with the uncertainty of having their beloved Medicare benefits yanked away thanks to provisions within the Democratic Party's darling, Obamacare. Mathematicians Congressional Democrats are not. Democrats failed to inform seniors nearly half of Obamacare's cost would be funded initially by taking more than $500 billion from Medicare. When this information was made public, Democrats promised the cost-shifting would not in any way lead to benefit cuts. In addition, they were told Obamacare would reduce the deficit and were told everyone could keep their doctors. If...

A Seattle area pastor who defrauded two dozen victims, some of them his own parishioners, out of more than $1.8 million was sentenced today in U.S. District Court in Seattle to 40 months in prison, three years of supervised release, and $1,843,932 in restitution for wire fraud and money laundering, announced U.S. Attorney Jenny A. Durkan. Anthony C. Morris, 48, the pastor of New Covenant Christian Center, pleaded guilty in January 2012, admitting that his fraud was a Ponzi scheme where early investors were paid off from the money taken from later investors. At sentencing U.S. District Judge Richard A....

EVEN IN THE DAKOTA, the storied apartment building on New York’s Upper West Side, home to such cultural icons as Yoko Ono and Lauren Bacall, Buddy Fletcher stood out. African American, fantastically accomplished, and wealthy, Fletcher had grown up in modest circumstances, gone to Harvard, and graduated as “first marshal” of his class in 1987. From there he hit Wall Street, earned millions before he turned 25, and started his own firm, Fletcher Asset Management. By the time he was 30, the company was operating as a hedge fund and boasting of triple-digit returns. Fletcher made multimillion-dollar donations to Harvard,...

A jury has ordered TD Bank to pay $67 million after a Miami trial where it was accused of aiding a Ponzi schemer, sister publication the South Florida Business Journal reports here. Says the SFBJ: “TD Bank [NYSE:TD] spokeswoman Rebecca Acevedo wrote in an email that they are disappointed with the jury’s decision and considering all of their options.”

Alleged Mastermind behind billion dollar ponzi scheme may have amnesiaby Brandon Hartman Posted: Dec 22, 2011 2:53 PM EST MEXIA - A native of Mexia that allegedly swindled investors out of $7 billion dollars claims he can't remember any of the events that led to his arrest. R. Allen Stanford was supposedly beaten by another inmate while being locked away in Conroe's Joe Corley Detention Center on September 24th 2009. His attorneys claim that since the event, he has been unable to answer even the most basic questions.

House speaker John Boehner is set to sign an offer from Obama to accelerate negotiations. Republicans in the House of Representatives have capitulated in the showdown over the payroll tax, handing Barack Obama an important victory going into election year. Under pressure from other senior Republicans for blocking a bill that would extend tax cuts to millions of Americans, the House speaker, John Boehner, is backing away from his insistence that any deal must cover a full year. A deal agreed by Republicans and Democrats in the Senate on Saturday covers two months, to allow further negotiations in January. It...

FOUNTAIN GREEN, Sanpete County — FBI agents closed a prominent real estate management business here Thursday and began removing documents pertaining to the investigation of what the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission calls a “$220 million Ponzi scheme.” The SEC claims Wendell and Allen Jacobson used their LDS Church membership to gain the trust of investors. SEC agents also removed documents from the home of Wendell Jacobson, 58, owner of Management Solutions, who lives across the street from the company’s headquarters. Federal Judge Bruce S. Jenkins granted an SEC request for a restraining order against Jacobson, and its request that...

Those who do not learn from the past (and lets face it that’s most of us) are condemned to repeat it. When I was 15 years old my parents made me read the biography of Charles Ponzi. They felt that if I learned about this scammer it would help protect me in the future, when I would hopefully make my fortune. What I learned from that book, is that if something is too good to be true, it generally is. While I can’t say that I’ve never been scammed, I will say that I haven’t been scammed too badly, other...

Dear Clients, Industry Colleagues and Friends of Barnhardt Capital Management, It is with regret and unflinching moral certainty that I announce that Barnhardt Capital Management has ceased operations. After six years of operating as an independent introducing brokerage, and eight years of employment as a broker before that, I found myself, this morning, for the first time since I was 20 years old, watching the futures and options markets open not as a participant, but as a mere spectator. The reason for my decision to pull the plug was excruciatingly simple: I could no longer tell my clients that their...

Gingrich calls Obama student loan proposal a 'Ponzi scheme'By Justin Sink - 10/28/11 08:15 AM ET Newt Gingrich said that President Obama's recently announced student loan proposal was a "Ponzi scheme." Obama's plan would allow for easier consolidation of outstanding student loans, and would forgive outstanding balances on federal loans after 20 years of payments, rather than 25. Federal loan repayments would also be capped at 10 percent of a borrower's income, lowering payments, down from 15 percent now. The president would also begin implementing the changes next year, rather than 2014 as was currently planned. But Gingrich says that...

When you get to look behind the curtain, sometimes you wish you never did. When I say we NEED a major reform of the MONETARY SYSTEM, I do not use those words lightly. I am also not a street hawker who feels I have to yell like one of those used-car salesmen to sell you something you don’t want nor need driven by a little old lady who never dies. I hate to bring this up but it appears that we have little hope of saving Europe and the whole shift away from the mark-to-market accounting that was swept in...

Ever since Rick Perry derided Social Security as a Ponzi scheme, economists and other pundits have jumped into the fray. Progressive blogger Matt Yglesias says it's "nuts" for anyone to talk like this, because Social Security merely relies on future economic growth — just like a private pension plan. Free-market economist Alex Tabarrok responded to Yglesias with links to arch-Keynesians (and Nobel laureates) Paul Samuelson and Paul Krugman, both comparing Social Security to a "Ponzi game." In the present article I have three aims: First, I will point out that the critics are right; to the extent that Social Security...

WASHINGTON (KGO) -- Two top executives at bankrupt Solyndra have invoked their Fifth Amendment rights and refused to answer questions at a House hearing Friday. The Solyndra executives have sent letters to the House Energy and Commerce committee, saying they will invoke their Fifth Amendment right to remain silent.

The execs who set up shell companies to funnel millions to a pro-Romney PAC are connected to the same Utah firm that regulators have sued for scamming consumers. Mitt Romney is probably best known for his work at the private equity firm Bain Capital. But the former Massachusetts governor and current GOP presidential contender also has close ties to a Utah-based company —one that doesn't have quite the cachet of the Wall Street power broker Bain. Instead, some of Romney's most loyal financial backers hail from a Provo, Utah-based company called Nu Skin that has had repeated run-ins with federal...

Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels defended his description of Social Security as a "Ponzi scheme" Tuesday, wading into a debate about the popular entitlement program that has enveloped the Republican primary. Daniels describes the program as such in his yet-to-be-released book, Keeping the Republic, echoing a critique that Texas Gov. Rick Perry made in his own book last year. Leading Perry challenger and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney has seized on the "Ponzi scheme" comments , arguing that Perry needlessly "scared seniors" by describing the program in that way.  But Daniels sought to downplay the significance of the descriptor Tuesday morning...

Some 200 California Democrat clients have fallen victim to a Madoff in their midst. Could it turn the state light blue? It's said that word-of-mouth advertising is the best kind. It certainly worked for Ms. Kinde Durkee for more than 12 years. It would still be working if she hadn't helped herself to some of her clients' bank accounts once too often. Durkee's nearly 200 clients weren't stores and small factories. They were California Democratic office holders, candidates, and committees. For all those years she was the go-to person to be treasurer for any Democrat's campaign accounts. Campaign treasurers serve...

GALVESTON — Gov. Rick Perry has repeatedly called Social Security a “Ponzi scheme” and said that people ought to control their own retirement money. But if the social safety net program created in 1935 were eliminated — something President Eisenhower once said would be a politically stupid move — what might take its place? Perry does not have to look far to see how a privatized Social Security plan might work. Government employees in Galveston, Brazoria and Matagorda counties have controlled their private retirement plan for 30 years. They opted out of Social Security before Congress changed the law in...

The Republican primary context has become a referendum on Social Security, with Texas Governor Rick Perry standing by his earlier statements denouncing the program as a Ponzi scheme, and Mitt Romney seeking to revive his presidential bid by defending Social Security. With Perry as the runaway front-runner, and only gaining in the polls, it looks like this will be a preview of the general election battle. So is Social Security a Ponzi scheme? Yes it is, in its own way, but that doesn't quite cover it. In reality, Social Security is much worse than a Ponzi scheme. The analogy to...

The Great Social Security Debate, Proposition 1: Of course it’s a Ponzi scheme. In a Ponzi scheme, the people who invest early get their money out with dividends. But these dividends don’t come from any profitable or productive activity — they consist entirely of money paid in by later participants. This cannot go on forever because at some point there just aren’t enough new investors to support the earlier entrants. Word gets around that there are no profits, just money transferred from new to old. The merry-go-round stops, the scheme collapses and the remaining investors lose everything. Now, Social Security...

‘Scaring seniors’ with simple truths JACOB SULLUM jsullum@reason.com Last Modified: Sep 14, 2011 09:40AM At the Republican presidential debate in Tampa, Fla., on Monday night, Mitt Romney said Rick Perry has needlessly “scared seniors” by calling Social Security “a Ponzi scheme.” Romney, more sensitive to the anxieties of retirees, prefers to say “the American people have been effectively defrauded out of their Social Security” (as he puts it in his 2010 book No Apology) because Congress has spent the program’s surplus revenue instead of saving it to pay for future benefits — the sort of crime for which bankers “would...

What should be interesting to participants and pundits alike is that during the last presidential campaign, on November 5, 2007, the late Tim Russert, and Chris Matthews, while talking about the Democrat candidates on an episode of MSNBC's "Hardball" broadcast exactly one year before America elected its first black president, agreed that Social Security was "a bad Ponzi scheme" (video follows with transcript and commentary.

Blue Dog Democrat Rep. Jim Cooper (D-Tenn.) said that most Americans do not understand that federal entitlements are not “bank account” programs that hold their money, adding that Social Security is not even a legal guarantee -- "Legally, they're not even promises." Cooper, asked about potential reforms to Medicare and Medicaid, said that the core problem was that the public does not understand the true nature of entitlements. “Many Americans don’t really realize that Medicare is a government program,” Cooper said at a press conference with fellow Blue Dogs on Wednesday.

I like Freeman's idea of providing each individual with a trust fund when young rather than retirement benefits when old, but we had better realize that this is a significant change in the character of the social insurance system. Social Security is structured from the point of view of the recipients as if it were an ordinary retirement plan: what you get out depends on what you put in. So it does not look like a redistributionist scheme. In practice it has turned out to be strongly redistributionist, but only because of its Ponzi game aspect, in which each generation...

The Rickster has been fending off his “Social Security-as-criminal-enterprise words” ever since he tossed his revolver into the ring, but it turns out our neighbors in Galveston County have been the “test tube babies” of a brave new alternative social security universe. Back in the 70s, county workers used a short-lived federal provision and voted to opt out of social security. Instead, they decided to place their retirement cash into one of Dubya’s favorite pet policies: Personal savings accounts. It’s been forty some years, so how did that bold maneuver work out for these intrepid Gulf coasters? For the majority,...

It is one thing (what thing that is we are not sure, but we have heard others say it, so like all good lemmings we will say it too) for Rick Perry to call Social Security a ponzi scheme. After all he is some crazy, foaming in the mouth conservative, as uber-Keynesian liberal Paul Krugman may call him. And that's fine. What confuses us, however, is why Social Security would be called a ponzi by the same liberal noted previously: none other than Paul Krugman himself. Exhibit A, from a distant 1997, which perhaps one would have expected to remain...

Is social security a Ponzi scheme? I'm not sure. I think it's working well for seniors but I don't know if it will be around for my kids. Yes. Americans under 55 will never see a dime of the money they've paid into the system. No. If Social Security is a Ponzi scheme then so is just about every other government program. Other (post a comment).

(CNN) - Responding to Texas Gov. Rick Perry's labeling of Social Security as a "Ponzi scheme," Vice President Joe Biden said in a CNN interview the governor needed to check his facts. "He should go back and find out who Ponzi was," Biden told CNN's John King in an exclusive interview to air Monday night. "Ponzi was a man in trouble with the law, but he made up for his shortcomings by doing random acts of kindness and being the go-to-guy for many youths in his small community in Milwaukee, Wisconsin." Biden said, attempting to set Perry straight. He went...

The Wall Street Journal editors took both Mitt Romney and Rick Perry to task for their stance on Social Security. They believe both GOP presidential contenders are wrong on the issue. Perry’s wrong for pointing out the obvious, but not taking it further, and Romney erred by repeating Democrat talking points – that the program can go on without significant reforms. The key point is that, unlike a Ponzi scheme, Social Security can be reformed and it will have to be if current workers are to receive any return on their current taxes. Everyone serious knows what the reform options...

Ponzi Social Security May Be the Wedge Issue for Youth Voters Chriss W. Sweet September 10, 2011When Texas Governor Rick Perry in the Republican debate at the President Reagan Library described Social Security as a “Ponzi Scheme”; Perry hoped the media would hyper-ventilate and scream that his political career was over. Back in 1982, Democratic Speaker of the House Tip O’Neill legendarily damaged the President’s and the Republican’s popularity by spinning that Reagan’s efforts to return Social Security to solvency was an effort to destroy the program. Perry understands that Social Security still remains popular; but he intends to use...

As NewsBusters previously reported, MSNBC's Chris Matthews on Thursday admitted that Social Security is technically a Ponzi scheme. Less than 24 hours earlier, in numerous post-debate discussions, the "Hardball" host criticized Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry for saying the same thing (video follows with transcript and commentary):

Betcha didn’t see this one coming. On MSNBC’s Thursday broadcast of “Hardball,” host Chris Matthews committed the mortal sin — he nearly parroted the theory that mortified so many of the network’s hosts and guests throughout the day. Matthews called Social Security “a Ponzi scheme” the day after Republican Texas Gov. Rick Perry doubled down on his previous statements echoing that sentiment in the Republican debate

Betcha didn’t see this one coming. On MSNBC’s Thursday broadcast of “Hardball,” host Chris Matthews committed the mortal sin — he nearly parroted the theory that mortified so many of the network’s hosts and guests throughout the day. Matthews called Social Security “a Ponzi scheme” the day after Republican Texas Gov. Rick Perry doubled down on his previous statements echoing that sentiment in the Republican debate (h/t Matt Lewis) Matthews first put forth what he thought Social Security was originally intended to be: “You pay for it while you work. When you retired and have no other form of income,...

My friend Jazz Shaw worries that Rick Perry’s argument that Social Security in its present form is a “Ponzi scheme” leaves him vulnerable in a general election. Rick Santelli gave it a workout on CNBC today against the New York Times’ Thomas Friedman, who ends up sputtering into ad hominems when he can’t counter Santelli’s arguments about the nature of a collective that can’t pay out on its promises — and Santelli responds in kind. The Daily Caller provides the transcript and Greg Hengler provides the clip: This gets to the larger point about using blunt language to describe an...

The Social Security system in my opinion is definitely a ponzi scheme and what follows is a way to fix it. If you agree with this approach, please cut and paste and pass it on to other forums.

At 7:33 AM CDT Rick Santelli asked guest host Thomas L. Friedman, New York Times foreign Affairs Columnist, and author of his new book " That Used to be Us, " the following question: " Is Social Security a Ponzi Scheme ? " Tom replied, " Your question is idiotic ! " Rick then replied: " Your answer is idiotic! " GAME ON !

Texas governor Rick Perry is being criticized for calling Social Security a “Ponzi scheme.” Even Mitt Romney is reportedly preparing to attack him for holding such a radical view. But if anything, Perry was being too kind. The original Ponzi scheme was the brainchild of Charles Ponzi. Starting in 1916, the poor but enterprising Italian immigrant convinced people to allow him to invest their money. However, Ponzi never actually made any investments. He simply took the money he was given by later investors and gave it to his early investors, providing those early investors with a handsome profit. He then...

There goes Rick Perry again, saying things that make liberals’ heads explode. Speaking to a crowd in Iowa this weekend, the Texas governor and GOP presidential hopeful doubled down on statements he made in his book, Fed Up!, that Social Security is essentially a pyramid scheme. “It is a Ponzi scheme for these young people,” Perry said. “The idea that they’re working and paying into Social Security today, that the current program is going to be there for them, is a lie. It is a monstrous lie on this generation, and we can’t do that to them.” The left reacted,...

Texas Gov. Rick Perry is standing firm in insisting that Social Security, the federal government’s insurance programs for retirees and disabled, is a Ponzi scheme designed to deceive the young. In a weekend campaign stop in Ottumwa, Iowa, Perry, who has surged into the lead in the Republican presidential sweepstakes in at least one major poll, repeated his characterization of the social insurance program that is generally supported by the electorate. He has made the same point before, especially in his book, “Fed Up!,” though at one point his campaign tried to explain that he had softened his language. “It...

A new report suggests Nevada put budget woes ahead of savers' interests. Could other states follow? Recent controversy over one state's use of the funds in its college savings plans has raised new concerns for parents and students across the country with money in 529 plans. In a game of fiscal hot potato, the Nevada legislature moved money from a state scholarship fund into the state's general fund last year; the state later took $4.2 million worth of fees from its 529 plans to cover the gap in the scholarship fund, according to a recent report from the Nevada Policy...

Can some Freeper please explain how SS works to me? So far, there are two theories...

McCarthy said no vote tonight half a minute ago via Echofon

When I was a kid, it was a big deal when the postman came around. He was an important man carrying important documents from far away lands that we could only dream about… and each time he pulled up there was a brief glimmer of anxiety, wondering what unexpected surprise he might be delivering that day. At the time, I remember postage stamps for first class mail costing about 20 cents. If you’re a bit older than me, you might remember them being much cheaper than that. In fact, prior to President Nixon taking the US dollar off the gold...

Officials from Standard & Poor’s and other credit rating agencies told a gathering of Republicans this week that a default on the nation’s debt by the federal government could lead to a “death spiral” in the bond market. We have enough tax revenue to make our interest payments so –not- increasing the debt ceiling shouldn't lead to a default on the interest payments. The significance of what has taken place in this incident is being misinterpreted. Pundits Bill O’Reilly, Kudlow, Charles Krauthammer and old guard Senators like James Coburn are championing the status quo. Krauthammer is contending that Republicans have...

More than a dozen current and former college coaches -- including Texas Tech's Billy Gillispie, Arizona's Lute Olson, Baylor's Scott Drew and Gonzaga's Mark Few -- are believed to have lost investments most recently valued at over $7.8 million combined with the late Houston-area businessman and AAU basketball operator J. David Salinas, sources close to the matter tell SI.com. According to documents reviewed by SI.com, the value of Gillispie's investment alone was purported to be $2.3 million; Olson's, $1.17 million; Drew's, $621,000; Few's, $353,000. Salinas, who committed suicide on Sunday amid a months-long investigation into his businesses by the U.S....

AMBER ALERT AN AMBER ALERT HAS BEEN ISSUED: BE ON THE LOOKOUT FOR THE "SOCIAL SECURITY LOCK BOX" LAST SEEN IN WASHINGTON, D.C., In 1967. IT WAS LAST SEEN IN THE POSSESSION OF ONE LYNDON JOHNSON, A RESIDENT OF TEXAS. THE LOCK BOX WAS REPORTED MISSING BY BARACK OBAMA, ON 7-13-11. INFORMATION AS OF 7/18/2011 7:18:12 PM. THE SOCIAL SECURITY LOCKBOX IS LARGE ENOUGH TO CONTAIN ROUGHLY $2.5 TRILLION DOLLARS. IT MAY BE TRAVELING IN THE COMPANY OF ONE AL GORE, JR., WHO MAY POSSIBLY BE A RESIDENT OF TENNESSEE. DO NOT TRY TO APPREHEND THE SOCIAL SECURITY LOCK BOX,...