Compared to Bernard Madoff, Charles Ponzi was a piker. $50 billion? Let me write that out: $50,000,000,000.00.
This being the Internet, somebody has devoted a lot of time to creating a website which looks to be a good resource for Ponzi students. According to the author, Ponzi got away with $9.5 million.
Like I said, a piker.
If you know anyone who's interested in financial history, I recommend Charles Mackay's Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds. He begins with the South Sea bubble, then goes back in time to Dutch tulip mania and discusses alchemy (gold from nothing!).
It's not just financial history, though. He also spends a lot of time on mob behavior as shown in the Crusades and witch-hunting. It's fascinating.
Posted by Linkmeister at December 15, 2008 09:56 AM | TrackBackIf you haven't already done it with the $9.5 million, What would Ponzi's scheme have netted him in today's dollar...I mean, not the deflated mess that it is, but when adjusted for the almost 90 years since then?
Posted by: Karan at December 15, 2008 04:38 PMOh, well, when you put it that way. . .
(dons green eyeshade)
Er, a whopping $102,872,175.00, per the CPI calculator at the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
So $100M in today's dollars. I'd take it.
Posted by: Linkmeister at December 15, 2008 08:17 PM