This Is Not A Pyramid

I Know, I Know
A lot of things are not a pyramid - a pickled lemon, californium and duck tape, for example - and very few things are.  

Stockport Pyramid!

     What I am trying to resolve is the difference in types of fraud.  You may (actually that should be "ought to") remember me mentioning Bernie Madoff running a giant Ponzi scheme, without defining what one of these is.
     A 'Pyramid scheme' involves current investors recruiting new investors, from whom they get their profits, repeated until the thing falls apart.  At the simplest this would mean an originator recruits two people, who pay him.  These then have to recruit four people to recompense themselves.  If they manage this then these four have to recruit eight people - by the tenth step you need to have over a thousand people recruited; and remember, that's only using a ratio of 1:2.  The schemes are typically camouflaged by having to "sell on" cheap and nasty products not worth tuppence ha'penny*.

Using a 1:6 ratio

     Anyway, that's what a Ponzi scheme's not.
     "O fiscal wizard, please enlighten us!" I hear you plead.  Pausing only to wonder if that's sarcasm or sincerity, I shall indeed do so.

Not a pyramid

     
But First!
Do please try to keep up, these mental gymnastics are for your own good.  If this ever-changing world in which we live in - oh, sorry, those are the lyrics for "Live and Let Die", aren't they?  If you can't keep up with this ever-changing world, then it won't be for want of BOOJUM! helping you, will it?
     
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b07Z_qfchFk

     That's the link to the Youtube video of LALD.  No, no, you can thank me later.
     But first!  A clerihew or two.

Peter Weller

Is a decent fellah.

In "Buckaroo Banzai" he played Buckaroo.

It's a shame there's no Buckaroo Banzai Two

     Really, if you haven't seen this film then THE EXIT - no, actually I'll give you a second chance. 

Buckaroo, the brain surgeon

 Kevin Smith was reported to be working on a television series of BB, though no mention of it lately.  Yes, yes, we'll get to Ponzi schemes in a minute.

John Lithgow

Simply as to go!

He plays Churchill on British TV

When he's notorious for promoting anarchy.

     He's in BB, too, playing - this is a bit complicated - Doctor Emilio Lizardo, who gets possessed by the spirit of the evil Red Lectroid war criminal Lord John Worfin**, 

"Laugh-a while you can, monkey boy!"

when he breaches the reality barrier to the Eighth Dimension.  So - er- you could argue that he was promoting anarchy.  Is this making sense yet?

Ellen Barkin

Enjoys parkin.

This is a seasonal British cake

That Conrad cannot successfully bake.

     Yes, you guessed it, Ellen is in BB, too, as the love interest Penny Priddy.  She ends up being threatened by a Mutant Glob On A Plank, shades of the Perils of Penelope, but Buckaroo saves the day.  Look, if this isn't making sense, go watch the film!

Penny and the Hong Kong Cavaliers

     "Yes, yes, W.D. Richter really excelled himself with 'The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across The Eighth Dimension"," I hear you call.  "But the Ponzi stuff?"
     You don't want me to post my 5,000 word dissertation on the long-term influence of TAOBBATED on - no?  Not even a precis?  O very well.

Ponzi Schemes
These were around before Charles Ponzi, but he is the person who became infamous for running a very large one in South Canada.  Briefly put, although padded-out a bit to get closer to my word count, in a Ponzi scheme the supposed returns from investment are paid out to the original investors from the money paid in by new investors.  There are various tweaks and wrinkles that can be run in order to ensure that the original victims don't withdraw their money, such as offering an even higher return rate if they keep their money invested for longer.

The stats for bad ol' Bernie

   Whilst Charles made off with an estimated $20 million - his accounts were so convoluted it was difficult to be precise - bad ol' Bernie fiddled $65 billion, which is kind of the pupil exceeding the teacher.
     What brings about the collapse of a Ponzi scheme is if the criminals running it have a divine revelation about the nature of their fraud, repent, recant and repay all the money they swindled.  Failing that, they run off with the money, insufficient new investors are brought in, or an outside crisis causes people to withdraw their funds.

Bernard Madoff

Did indeed make off

With a lot of people's money.

Where he is now is not so funny.

Butner Federal Correction Institute

*  Not very much
**  War criminals are de facto evil, but I just wanted to be clear.