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Edward "Ed" Mezvinsky born January 17, 1937, is a former Democrat congressman. As a Democrat, he represented Iowa 's 1st congressional district in the United States House of Representatives for two terms, from 1973 to 1977. He sat on the House Judiciary Committee that decided the fate of Richard Nixon. He and the Clinton's were very politically intertwined for years. In March 2001, Mezvinsky was indicted and later pleaded guilty to 31 of 69 charges of bank fraud, mail fraud, and wire fraud. He was sentenced to 80 months in (Federal) prison. Ed Mezvinsky embezzled more than $10 million...

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...

[Via Michael Snyder of The Economic Collapse blog} Why is the global economy in so much trouble? How can so many people be so absolutely certain that the world financial system is going to crash? Well, the truth is that when you take a look at the cold, hard numbers it is not difficult to see why the global financial pyramid scheme is destined to fail. In the United States today, there is approximately 56 trillion dollars of total debt in our financial system, but there is only about 9 trillion dollars in our bank accounts. So you could take...

*SNIP* The following is the global financial pyramid scheme by the numbers... -$9,283,000,000,000 - The total amount of all bank deposits in the United States. The FDIC has just 25 billion dollars in the deposit insurance fund that is supposed to "guarantee" those deposits. In other words, the ratio of total bank deposits to insurance fund money is more than 371 to 1. -$10,012,800,000,000 - The total amount of mortgage debt in the United States. As you can see, you could take every penny out of every bank account in America and it still would not cover it. -$10,409,500,000,000 -...

BILL GROSS: Investment Banks Have Morphed Markets With 'Ponzi Finance' — And Time Is Almost Up Matthew BoeslerJanuary 31, 2013, 9:52 AMBill Gross, the PIMCO fund manager known as the "Bond King," is out with his February investment letter, titled "Credit Supernova!" This month, Gross tackles the relationship between credit expansion and real growth. He channels the late economist Hyman Minsky, saying the economy is now in Minsky's "Ponzi finance" phase, "when additional credit would be required just to cover increasingly burdensome interest payments, with accelerating inflation the end result." Gross writes that new credit is providing diminishing returns: "Each...

Bad mortgage loans, obscured through complex and unregulated investment instruments, cost taxpayers billions WASHINGTON—The U.S. economy is slowly making a recovering from a near-collapse and the worst recession since the Great Depression. But what brought on the subprime mortgage crisis that led to huge financial losses, a decline in wealth for much of the country, a GDP drop of 5 percent for the period from Dec. 2007 to June 2009, and an official unemployment rate that peaked at 10.0 percent in Oct. 2009? “Very few people understand [what happened],” said University of Maryland Professor Michael Greenberger at the Center for...

The Economist ominously reports: The struggle to digest the swollen generation of ageing baby-boomers threatens to strangle economic growth. As the nature and scale of the problem become clear, a showdown between the generations may be inevitable. The statistics are frightening: The average federal tax rate for a median American household, including income and payroll taxes, dropped from more than 18% in 1981 to just over 11% in 2011. Yet sensible tax reforms left less revenue for the generous benefits boomers have continued to vote themselves, such as a prescription-drug benefit paired with inadequate premiums. Deficits exploded. Erick Eschker, an...

Legendary market maven Bill Gross, the so-called "King of Bonds," said investors will flat-out lose money if they continue employing the "buy and hold" strategies of the past. In his August Investment Outlook, Gross told investors that "financial repression, QEs of all sorts and sizes" and low interest rates will "dominate the timescape" for decades, maybe longer. Investors must adjust to the new world order to avoid being the loser in this zero-growth environment, Gross warned. Ultimately, Gross said, the stock market's historical, inflation-adjusted 6.6% annual growth rate is unsustainable. Gross, of course, is a bond man. In March, he...

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....

Poway Unified to Pay Nearly 10 Times What it Borrowed: Report District will begin financing the 40-year loan beginning in 2050 New school, new library, new technology – just a few examples of the renovations and repairs made to Poway Unified School District’s 24 aging schools starting in 2001 under Proposition U. To finish the job, Poway taxpayers passed Proposition C in 2008. Last year, as part of that bond, the district borrowed $105 million. It won’t begin paying it back until 20 years from now. With interest, that $105 million loan will end up costing taxpayers almost $1 billion...

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...

Surging above $1 trillion, U.S. student loan debt has surpassed credit card and auto-loan debt. This debt explosion jeopardizes the fragile recovery, increases the burden on taxpayers and possibly sets the stage for a new economic crisis. ............. Newt Gingrich calls student loans a "Ponzi scheme" under which students spend the borrowed money now but will "have to pay off the national debt" later in life as taxpayers.... Lifting student debt higher and higher is the escalating cost of attending schools, with tuition increasing far faster than the rate of inflation. And enrollment has been rising for years, a trend...

Bondholders of Stockton, California debt are about to be punished as City Manager Takes Steps Toward Bankruptcy. Stockton, California, may take the first steps toward becoming the most populous U.S. city to file for bankruptcy next week because of burdensome employee costs, excessive debt and bookkeeping errors that misrepresented accounts, city officials said today. The Stockton City Council will meet Feb. 28 to consider a type of mediation that allows creditors to participate, the first move toward a Chapter 9 bankruptcy filing under a new state law. The council will also weigh suspending some payments on long-term debt of about...

A heavy Treasury auction schedule with a big settlement on Thursday was enough to contribute to keeping stock prices (SPX) in check this week, but not to knock down Treasuries. Demand for US Government paper is so great it simply engulfs even heavier than expected levels of new supply. The massive capital flight out of Europe is now confined to the only game in town, the US Treasury market, the last great Ponzi game still operating. This won’t end well, but it won’t end until it ends, and the technical signals suggest that it won’t happen in the short run....

BOSTON–Chanting “hands off” and “no cuts,” hundreds of seniors rallied here to warn Congress’s deficit-cutting supercommittee to stay away from Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. “When you get older, you need help, not cuts,” said Steve Ciardi, a former pipe fitter who has multiple sclerosis and was in a wheelchair being pushed by his wife, Patty. “That is what the country is about – helping people,” she said. AARP Massachusetts, the SEIU and AFL-CIO labor unions, and several senior activist groups are organizing the event, which kicked off this morning with a rally at the historic Wang Theatre in downtown...

According to new emails released by House Republicans, George Kaiser, a billionaire investor and bundler for President Obama's 2008 campaign, discussed the now-bankrupt solar company Solyndra with White House officials. The emails show a series of exchanges between Kaiser (who has an apparent fondness for Comic Sans) and his associates, including Steve Mitchell, an employee at his VC firm Argonaut and Ken Levit, an employee at the George Kaiser Family Foundation, discussing a number of interactions with the White House, including a statement that Solyndra was among the "prime poster children" of the administration's stimulus plan and that Kaiser and...

With the Golden State nearly broke, it now plans to secure funding largely by borrowing more, the Associated Press reported, though specifics were unclear. About 20 percent would come from the private sector. Until now, the state had been relying on more than $15 billion from the federal government, $10 billion from private investors and $5 billion from local governments. But the state hadn't gotten any closer to raising the money in the three years since voters approved the plan. The bullet train project, which would link San Francisco and Los Angeles with the nation's first high-speed rail line, has...

<p>On Christmas Eve 2008, two weeks after Bernard L. Madoff confessed to running history’s largest Ponzi scheme, he and his wife, Ruth, attempted suicide in their Manhattan penthouse.</p> <p>Mrs. Madoff said in an interview with The New York Times: “I don’t know whose idea it was, but we were both so saddened by everything that had happened. It was unthinkable to me: hate mail, phone calls, lawyers.”</p>

Many retirees feel they have ‘paid’ for benefits through their payroll taxes. This is much closer to being true for Social Security than it is for Medicare. Most Medicare recipients receive far more in benefits than they “pre-pay� through payroll taxes. Far too few Americans understand this simple truth, with the result that too many Americans think politicians have no business cutting “my Medicare.� Even though much vitriol of late has been directed at Social Security, Medicare is arguably far more of a Ponzi scheme than Social Security ever was. The payroll taxes used to finance Part A Medicare benefits...

Last week, the Obama administration dropped one of the signature provisions of its healthcare plan. The CLASS Act (Community Living Assistance Services) was intended to provide affordable insurance for long-term care to individuals who, because of infirmity or age, could no longer care for themselves. But the reality that not enough healthy Americans would sign up to make it self-supporting finally doomed the program. Many opponents of Obamacare will no doubt cheer this turn of events because it confirms the view that we cannot afford to, in essence, nationalize health care. I agree --but I also recognize that the problem...

During the recent GOP presidential debate, Texas Gov. Rick Perry said that Social Security is a "monstrous lie" and a "Ponzi scheme." More and more people are coming to see that Social Security is a Ponzi scheme, but is it a lie, as well? Let's look at it. Here's what the 1936 government pamphlet on Social Security said: "After the first 3 years -- that is to say, beginning in 1940 -- you will pay, and your employer will pay, 1.5 cents for each dollar you earn, up to $3,000 a year. ... Beginning in 1943, you will pay 2...

The Republican chairman of the House Budget Committee on Tuesday drew fire from Democrats for backing Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s description of Social Security as a “Ponzi scheme.” Social Security fits the technical definition of a Ponzi scheme, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) told conservative Laura Ingraham on her radio show. “It’s not a criminal enterprise, but it’s a pay-as-you-go system, where earlier investors — or say, taxpayers — get a positive rate of return, and the most recent investors — or taxpayers — get a negative rate of return,” he said. “That is how those schemes work.” Perry’s description of...

When Ida May Fuller received the first Social Security check for $22.54 in 1940 she had paid into the system in the amount of $24.75. By the time of her death in 1975 at the age of 100 years she had received payments totaling $22,882 and change. Is Social Security a Ponzi scheme? Of course it is, money from current investors was used to pay Ida May’s bill far beyond her investment. But there is a distinction. Social Security is a mandatory Ponzi scheme. This is no small difference as the downfall of all Ponzi schemes is when financial downturns...

Proposition 1: 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 is a pay-as-you-go program. A current beneficiary isn’t receiving the money...

I don't want to seem to quibble with Richard Freeman's essay, since I am overwhelmingly in agreement with it. Let me just make a few points. 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...

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 go to jail." See the difference? Neither do I. Both the former Massachusetts governor...

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.

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,...

Social Security is a "Ponzi scheme for these young people," said Gov. Rick Perry in his first debate as a presidential candidate. "The idea ... that the current program is going to be there for them is a lie." Pressed by the moderator, Perry did not back down. He doubled down, calling Social Security a "monstrous lie to our kids." Is not such language provocative, Perry was asked. Retort: "Maybe it's time to have some provocative language in this country." Since Barry Goldwater suggested the program be privatized and LBJ ran an ad of a Social Security card being scissored...

Even after an op-ed in USA Today and a strong exposition of his position in last night’s debate, Rick Perry still draws heat for his characterization of Social Security as a “monstrous lie.� A new CNN/ORC poll, for example, reveals that 72 percent of registered voters say Perry’s description of the program is “inaccurate,� while just 27 percent say it is “truthful.� More of the breakdown from WSJ’s Washington Wire: The survey also shows that 59 percent of tea party supporters disagree with Mr. Perry’s characterization.Still, 55 percent of those polled say there’s a serious problem with Social Security that...

Someone around here has to know. It's nearly impossible to cut through the liberal media noise machine and find Mitt's words, but I know one of you freepers around here knows where to find it. Rush talked about it today, so we know Mitt said it: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2777387/posts Tell us where and when.

During his Monday show, Limbaugh warned the 2012 Republican field not to use Perry's remarks against him. He specifically named Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. "I've not endorsed anybody and this is not an endorsement" Limbaugh said. "But be very careful if you start attacking Rick Perry on Social Security and the 'Ponzi scheme.' There are too many of you out there who have already said that yourselves -- Mitt Romney. Mitt, you have already called it a Ponzi scheme. And worse." "I've got a whole list of people here - media and outside -...

Broadcast on: CNN Broadcast time: 8pm EDT/5pm PDT The Candidates: Michele Bachmann Bachmann is serving her 3rd full term in the U.S. House. Founder of the House Tea Party Caucus, she earned a Master of Laws degree, worked as a tax attorney, and was a foster mother for 23 teenagers. She is a member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. Herman Cain Cain is the former chief executive of Godfather's Pizza and former chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City. He lost the Georgia Republican primary for a U.S. Senate seat in 2004. He was recently...

WASHINGTON (AP) — In a sharp challenge to the GOP, President Barack Obama proposed paying for his costly new jobs plan Monday with tax hikes that Republicans have already rejected, and he accused them of political motives if they still refuse to go along. "The only thing that's stopping it is politics," Obama declared. The president's proposal drew criticism from House Speaker John Boehner, who'd previously responded in cautious but somewhat receptive tones to the $447 billion jobs plan made up of tax cuts and new spending that Obama first proposed in an address to Congress last Thursday. "It would...

Texas Gov. Rick Perry made waves during a recent Republican presidential debate when he referred to Social Security – one of the entitlement programs responsible for our nation’s skyrocketing debt – as a “Ponzi scheme.” “You cannot keep the status quo in place and call it anything other than a Ponzi scheme,” Perry said. “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,...

Until a half a minute ago, liberals called Social Security a Ponzi scheme, too. Is Texas governor and Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry a courageous and welcome truth teller for calling Social Security a Ponzi scheme, or is he being needlessly provocative instead? Or maybe you think Perry’s Ponzi comparison is just plain wrong. I favor the truth-teller option, but the debate will surely go on. In any case, it’s certain that Perry’s Ponzi-scheme claim is in no way original. Not only have a raft of conservatives called Social Security a Ponzi scheme over the years, quite a few very...

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...

Mitt Romney didn’t wait long to begin his attack on Rick Perry over Social Security—his campaign is doing door-to-door distribution of a flier attacking Perry on the issue. The flier, which a campagn spokesman said is being left at the doors of Florida GOP primary voters, portrays the GOP primary as a two-candidate race—“Two candidates. Only one will protect what’s important to you,” is the headline. Of those two, it says, Perry is “reckless and wrong on Social Security.” The bold-face tagline: “Rick Perry: How can we trust anyone who wants to kill Social Security?” Romney, it says, favors “entitlement...

The Tampa Tribune posts a flier that the Mitt Romney campaign is distributing in Florida, attacking Rick Perry as "reckless and wrong on social security." The top of the flier has pictures of a smiling Romney and a surly-looking Perry, and reads: "Two candidates. Only one will protect what's important to you." Continue Reading "Rick Perry believes social security is a 'failure,'" the flier says, quoting the Texas governor's book. "Rick Perry believes Social Security is unconstitutional ... Rick Perry does not believe Social Security should exist ... How can we trust anyone who wants to kill Social Security?" Notably...

Texas Gov. Rick Perry has gotten all kinds of grief from the smartest guys in the room crowd in New York and Washington for calling Social Security “a Ponzi Scheme,” and “a monstrous lie to our kids.” I can’t think of a more fitting place to demonstrate a Reaganesque honesty than the Reagan Library, with former First Lady Nancy Reagan looking on benignly as a couple of her crisply-coiffed Liberal Mainstream Media friends do their best to discredit the heirs to her husband’s political legacy. Reagan himself often spoke just as bluntly about liberalism’s many sacred cows, and he invariably...

Washington — A growing divide over Social Security splits the two leading contenders for the Republican presidential nomination, and the differences between Texas Gov. Rick Perry and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney foreshadow a tricky political dance with older voters. Romney has seized on what he perceives as Perry’s vulnerability on a program that seniors hold dear, Democrats venerate as sacrosanct and Perry has labeled a “Ponzi scheme.” That sets up a battle for older voters in Iowa, retirees in Florida and the Sun Belt, and Baby Boomers everywhere worried about their own recession-scarred retirement plans. “If we nominate someone...

It has taken me a couple days to fully compose my thoughts on Wednesday's GOP debate on MSNBC. Like most, I was looking forward to seeing Rick Perry perform on stage for the first time. I like Rick Perry and would gladly support him, but he made two obvious blunders as far as I can see. One can be fixed, the other is his to own. I was and am still hoping that Governor Perry can improve himself as I am no great fan of Mitt Romney. While I prefer Rick Perry on the substance of the issues he failed...

According to the commentariat, Governor Rick Perry has stepped into a pile of electoral cow manure. Perry had the unrivaled gall to tell the truth about Social Security — that the program is, by design, a Ponzi scheme. As President Eloquent might say, the talking heads are “all wee-weed up.” Personally, I’d like to give Rick Perry a medal for courage and a laurel wreath for leadership. He has signaled his intention to speak truth boldly in terms real people can understand. Of course, Social Security is essentially a Ponzi scheme, fully dependent upon adequate numbers of new “investors” (workers)...

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,...

Gov. Rick Perry has drawn a lot of criticism for calling Social Security a “Ponzi scheme,” but the fact is that it bears more than a passing resemblance to one. In both cases earlier participants can only get their money back if new participants join; in both cases no wealth is actually created; in both cases the earlier participants get a better return than the later ones; and in both cases the system is unsustainable. But of course there are also differences. Ponzi schemes are run to make their originators a profit. The federal government is running Social Security at...

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...

Former George W. Bush and Rick Perry adviser Karl Rove said that it was an "odd moment" when his critique of the current Texas governor was mentioned in last night's presidential debate, and that he was "surprised" when Perry said that he had been "over the top for a long time." "Governor Perry is responsible for what he writes and says - what's he upset about?" Rove said on Fox News.

Rachel Maddow and her MSNBC guests are scandalized that Rick Perry stuck to his guns that Social Security is a Ponzi scheme during the presidential debate tonight. “This kind of rhetoric will hurt him in the general elections,” they reassured each other. They didn’t flat out say that Perry was wrong, but actually he is. Social Security is not a Ponzi scheme. It is much worse.Here are three reasons why:One, a Ponzi scheme collects money from new investors and uses it to pay  previous investors—minus a fee. But Social Security collects money from new investors, uses some of it...

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 !