, Author: Banfo Immortal, reprinted by Odaily with authorization.

In 1882, Charles Ponzi was born in a Jewish family in Italy.

Although he doesn't like reading, he has mastered three languages ​​fluently, and his talent is extraordinary.

In that era when international trade was just getting rid of its buds and had not yet developed significantly, mastering a language was to some extent equivalent to mastering the key to the world.

The young Ponzi thought that he would use this key to find a bright future.

In 1903, 21-year-old Ponzi came to the United States from Italy, hoping to find his own story in this country full of chaos and opportunities.

At the beginning, his luck was not very good. He was penniless and had no local connections. All he found were odd jobs, either as a waiter or a plate server, or as a small worker. He didn't even have a bed, so he could only sleep on the floor at night. .

But the hard floor didn't erase his ambition. He thought he was worthy of something better, and he couldn't bend down, even if it was stealing or robbing, he didn't bully the young and the poor.

Soon, the boy was fired for stealing in a restaurant. This may be the fastest time in history to bully a boy into poverty.

Many years later, he said to the outside world that he fired his boss because he had a small goal of 1 million US dollars and would not be entangled in these worthless things for a long time.

But whether he was fired for stealing is actually no longer important, because his final historical position will not change in any way because of this incident, the financial elite is like this.

In 1907, he felt that it was difficult for him to get along in the United States, so he moved to Montreal, Canada.

Coming to Canada from the United States was a dimension reduction blow. Relying on his three languages ​​(Italian, French and English) and his fabricated resume, he found a job in a bank.

The story of a dishwasher who turns into a banker sounds like a surprise.

In fact, it is not surprising at all, because this bank itself is the king of stories, so Ponzi, who is proficient in languages ​​and good at making up stories, is a perfect match with this bank.

This bank is called Banco Zarossi, you must not have heard of it.

But this is very normal. In the long river of history, countless companies have disappeared, and most of them did not leave their names.

A hundred years from now, who will remember us now?

Remember credit card bills.

Ponzi's work at Banco Zarossi went very smoothly. At first he was a cashier, and later he was a manager.

He saw the essence of capital operation.

The average market interest rate at that time was 3%, and Banco Zarossi gave 2 times, 6%.

This naturally attracted a large number of depositors to come to handle business, and Banco Zarossi quickly became one of the most famous local banks by relying on these. Many peers were squeezed and could not survive and went bankrupt one after another.

Sweeping the market with destructive prices, hitting competitors, and plundering more resources was called disrupting the market at the time.

100 years later, some people call this Internet thinking, destructive innovation.

One generation is more wavering than the next generation, sincerity is not to be deceived.

What outsiders see is that Banco Zarossi is getting bigger day by day, but as an internal employee, especially a position involving cashiers, what Ponzi sees is that the interest rate far exceeds the level of the interbank, and there is no support from any assets and interest rate spreads at all.

The interest of the early investor comes from the principal of the later investor, which is completely borrowing new money to repay the old air-to-air.

Before Ponzi carried forward this set of gameplay and signed it, it belonged to the British proverb, called rob Peter to pay Paul.

The bank boss's calculations are actually very loud. He knows that the interest rate far exceeding that of his peers is unsustainable, but he can accumulate enough cash before the scam shatters, and then walk away.

Later, he went to Mexico to find his own southern girl.

The relationship and geographical location between Mexico and Canada are similar to Southeast Asia and China. A hundred years later in China, a group of big money lovers who love to eat leeks ran away to Southeast Asia and dared not come back.

I think they must be listening to the "Road Song" by the Band of Pain when they are running.

Go south, go south, go south, go south, go south, go south, go south, go south, go south

I know that in their hearts, they are looking forward to the day when they can cut songs, to Jay Chou's "All the Way North".

But they are just pediatrics, the real bosses, they don't bother to drive directly to the south, but go to the United States to make wheels.

I believe he will eventually drive his own car and set off from the United States.

Go south, go south, go south, go south, go south, go south, go south, go south, go south

After all, the stronger the wind, the more turbulent his heart was.

After the boss ran away, Banco Zarossi was in a mess.

Ponzi experienced being penniless for the second time. Generally, people will adapt more to the second time.

When a person is penniless, it is the time when he sees the most technology. Ponzi used other people's checks to set up a sum of cash for himself, and quickly gained liquidity.

Then he was caught at a faster rate and sentenced to 3 years.

Thinking of his childhood Mo bullying youth and poverty, the future is really history repeating itself again and again.

After being released from prison, Ponzi felt that everything in the world was changing again and again, and he decided not to engage in financial fraud, but to participate in smuggling across borders.

Then he was arrested again and sentenced to 2 years.

In prison, he knew that his life was inseparable from financial fraud.

If you want to do it, do it the biggest, he made up his mind.

In 1919, at the age of 37, Ponzi returned to the United States and came to Boston, looking for his own opportunities.

Soon, he discovered that there is an opportunity for arbitrage in international stamps and exchange rates. In short, through currency exchange, B currency is exchanged for A currency, and A is used to buy A stamps at A, and then to B. Sell ​​A stamp and get B currency.

If all costs and exchange rate fluctuations are not considered, there is about a 10% profit.

Considering all these costs, about 30% will be lost.

But the spirit of Banco Zarossi nourished Ponzi. He actually knew how to play, but he lacked a subject matter and a logic to persuade others. The fluctuations in exchange rates and stamps were right in his heart.

Theoretically, changes in the economic situation and exchange rate fluctuations in different countries can make the profit range of stamp arbitrage from -99% to plus 399%. Rounding up to match the dream drive, it is about equal to a steady profit without loss.

Ponzi began to sell his financial products on a large scale, investing for 90 days, with a yield of 50%, and later extreme to 45 days, 50%.

Ponzi has learned from the experience of his old company, he did not do it alone, but trained a lot of financial planners to do it together, and he will give a 10% commission if the head is pulled over. Eat offline again.

It can be called an American micro-business.

From this point of view, Ponzi pioneered the integration of MLM and micro-business ideas into the traditional routine of tearing down the east wall to make up the west wall, playing with new ideas and playing style. The scam is named after him, and it deserves its name. .

It's similar to Watt's improvement of the steam engine. Although he didn't invent it, he became famous because of him.

The American people were so excited that they came to give away heads one after another. The total amount was 20 million US dollars, which is about 30 small targets now. During the peak period, 75% of the local policemen bought Ponzi products.

Mr. Ponzi even had diamonds in his pipes.

His colleagues in later generations are often also little stars with luxury cars, famous watches, big villas.

4

For hundreds of years, the life of a Ponzi trader is often so boring and boring.

A Ponzi scheme is essentially a clever capital flow management technique.

By adjusting the ROI (input-output ratio) of fund entry (storage absorption) and export (repayment of debt and interest), the effect of controlling the water level of the fund pool is achieved, and then the funds are kept from collapsing.

Ponzi's quick exposure, fundamentally the ROI of capital export is out of control, and the interest he offered is too high, so high that anyone with a brain can calculate it, and it won't be long before all the cash in the world belongs to him.

No one knows what Ponzi is thinking. After all, his old club only has 6%, which is difficult to maintain. He is very clear about the relationship between interest rates and the speed of market collapse.

But he still insisted on giving 50%, 45 days, which is equivalent to an annualized rate of nearly 400%. This rate of return is indeed a good start for the younger generation.

Senior, senior.

Ponzi was imprisoned on November 1, 1920 and sentenced to 9 years.

But the operations of the senior masters are often unexpected. In 1922, he came out, relying on appeals and parole.

A liar who defrauded 20 million U.S. dollars (equivalent to 2.5 billion now) was sentenced to only 9 years, but he came out in the second year, and the bad roots of capitalism are clearly visible.

But what is even more miraculous is that after being released from prison, Ponzi ran to Florida, repeated his old tricks, and Ponzi reappeared.

As a result, he was caught again, and this time he was sentenced to 12 years in prison.

After finally escaping, he was able to kill the carbine. When I read history and read this, I often suspected that I was reading a pirated version. This is really a show.

Marquez is famous for his magical realism literature, but unfortunately he was only born in Latin America, which limits his development.

If he was born in the United States, he would probably become a master of fantasy novels in the world. At that time, it was amazing.

In 1934, Ponzi was released from prison, and the U.S. government threw him back to Italy for fear that he would return his carbine again.

In 1938, Ponzi tried to defraud Mussolini, the ruler of Italy, one of the core of the Axis powers at the time, but failed. Italy could not stay, and finally died in Brazil sadly, burying his ambition.

I once suspected that he was actually a causal weapon thrown by the United States. If he succeeded, would it rewrite the history of the world.

In fact, the reason why Ponzi failed in 1938 was very simple, because Ponzi's luck, in the year he cheated Mussolini, had been reincarnated and was no longer on him.

Destiny just let him bring the Ponzi scheme to the world, and someone else will carry it forward.

In 1938, a Jewish (again Jewish) family in New York, USA, a man named Bernard Madoff was born.

The real son of Ponzi's destiny was born.

Unlike Ponzi, who was born with clay legs and had no higher education, Madoff was a top student, graduating from Hofstra University Law School in 1960.

Compared with the destructive power, Ponzi's 20 million US dollars can only be regarded as trivial in front of Madoff's 50 billion US dollars.

Compared with the prison term, Ponzi's peak operation is only 14 years, and Madoff's shot is 150 years. Ponzi has no cards at all.

This fully tells us that knowledge is power.

After graduating from law school, instead of becoming a lawyer, Madoff went to work as a lifeguard on the beach.

Now we all know that to engage in a Ponzi scheme, the momentum must be large and the advertising must be sufficient. In other words, there must be enough trolls.

As the star of Ponzi, Madoff realized this very early on, so he became a lifeguard, felt the power of water himself, and became the leader of the water army.

During the lifeguard of the beach, he earned 5,000 US dollars, which shows that being a sailor is still making money.

With the 5,000 US dollars, Madoff established Bernard Madoff Investment Securities Company, which is mainly engaged in the middleman of stock trading, and earns the price difference as a middleman. Because of its high level and strong technology, it soon became famous on Wall Street.

The middleman makes the difference, does this sentence sound familiar to you?

The essence of human beings is a repeating machine, sincerity is not deceiving, sincerity is not deceiving.

At the beginning, Madoff did not want to embark on the road of Ponzi. What he did was serious financial securities trading, and his level was obvious to all.

Madoff's company was one of the first securities firms to automate trading, and could even be said to be a pioneer in the modernization of Wall Street.

Madoff has a close relationship with the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD), which founded NASDAQ in 1971, Nasdaq,

During Madoff's tenure as chairman of Nasdaq, he vigorously promoted Nasdaq's automated trading system and strict rules, which made Nasdaq overtake in a corner. Now it is the second largest stock exchange in the world. Well-known companies (Apple, Cisco, etc.) are here.

Many companies are proud to be listed on Nasdaq and cut American leeks.

After all, such a Ponzi operation is authentic.

Before Madoff became the king of Ponzi, the most dazzling halo was the father of Nasdaq.

Sometimes you have to admit that securities and Ponzi do have something in common to some extent. The valuation of securities and Ponzi's profit model are often as magical as fog.

How on earth did Madoff get crowned King of Ponzi?

This originated from a fund he established in the 1980s. At the beginning, he dismissed Ponzi because he thought he could make a lot of money by investing alone.

Numerous leeks in the stock market think the same as him.

The reality quickly taught Madoff that he could not achieve the returns he promised to his clients, because the fluctuations in the stock market are often unpredictable. We should all have experienced this mentality.

Ordinary people will admit that they are cowardly, but Chairman Mai will not. The chairman of the world's second largest stock exchange cannot afford to lose this man.

He said that if you give benefits, you will get benefits, although objective economic laws do not allow it.

At this time, the soul of Ponzi began to burn in him, and Ponzi was dedicated to beating economic laws.

At the beginning, he simply tried to do it among his friends, and found out.

Really fragrant.

Really fragrant.

Some people are like this, wherever they fall, they can lie down and fall asleep wherever they fall.

As he continued to test the waters, Madoff gradually found his own Ponzi rhythm. Under the guise of fund investment, he began to absorb a large amount of funds, and then began to cycle management.

His Ponzi road began.

We mentioned above that the core of a Ponzi scheme is fund pool management, so as a fund pool, what is the most valuable?

It is the idle funds that the owner throws in with his eyes closed and ignores them. In other words, the money that is only deposited but not withdrawn is the best.

What kind of person would only deposit but not withdraw, and not care so much about his own money?

In the United States, only the well-established Jewish aristocrats can do this.

The elegance of Old money reveals the fragrance of cheating.

Madoff's main target is them.

In order to be able to mix into the top circle of wealthy Jewish people, Madoff has continuously sponsored various theaters, schools and art funds. He is always the most generous one at the charity dinners of every Jewish nobleman.

Note that the Jewish aristocrats will not ignore you because of your generosity, because this is a routine operation of New Money to show their muscles. As a Jewish-born Madoff, he naturally knows how to do what he likes, that is, high-profile donations, low-key behavior, and even deliberate Hide your information and let others find it.

This is very much in the appetite of the old Jewish nobles, so their circle of friends and funds are open to Madoff.

With their support, Madoff was like a duck to water. Later, he became a member of the entire Wall Street and American high society. If you haven't handed over part of the funds to Madoff, then you are not a real elite.

All of a sudden, the money flew towards him.

However, Madoff, a talented student, is not Ponzi who has never been to college. He has a deep understanding of one of Ponzi's profound meanings, that is, pretending.

You have to pretend that your strength is unlimited, you have to maintain a sense of mystery, and you have to keep showing off your muscles in a high-key but low-key way.

So he never explained his specific investment methods, and whenever someone asked, he called it an exclusive business secret, and sometimes he would mysteriously say that he had exclusive inside information.

If it was a blind streamer who said that, he would be picked up and beaten soon.

But if this person is a pioneer of Wall Street technology, the father of Nasdaq, the chairman of Nasdaq, a celebrity in Jewish aristocratic circles, an appraiser of American elites, a spokesperson for capitalism in the United States, Mr. Madoff, then ordinary people can only say .

Elder, quickly accept the supernatural power, can I buy it?

In many cases, the point is not to say that you are not lying, but who is lying.

Some people are telling the truth even when they are lying.

In fact, it is not that no one has really doubted Madoff, but limited by his identity and status, as well as the strong support of the Jewish circle, no one can really do anything to him.

The supervisors in the United States have to toast Madoff every year, after all, all their personal assets are with Madoff.

Those American elites who hold a 10% annual income cherish Madoff even more as their own balls. No, the balls are not as precious as Madoff, because the balls cannot generate 10% annual income.

Except for a bum businessman.

As a young man, Trump insisted that Madoff was a liar because he smelled the same kind in Madoff.

This kind of sympathy is hard for us outsiders to understand.

Especially Madoff's scam, which is as real as it is fake.

Strictly speaking, Madoff's Ponzi road was very successful, because his deception lasted for nearly 30 years, and Ponzi had not been in prison for 30 years.

Madoff's epic capital flow management ability, superb real status, and self-packaging mystic ability have made Ponzi into an industry.

Ponzi King's scam is somehow perfect.

Because most of the donors did not doubt him until the last moment.

If it wasn't for the financial crisis in 2008, when Madoff's funders had to withdraw funds from him, then relying on Madoff's means, he could still borrow from the sky for another 500 years.

But it is a pity that there is no if, no matter how perfect Ponzi is, because it does not produce, and borrows new ones to repay old ones, the hidden danger of capital flow always exists. Once there is a run, everything will be ruined.

The entire Jewish aristocratic circle in the United States was blown up by Madoff.

Judaism is a troubled nation.

Seeing this, I believe smart readers already know how to spot a Ponzi scheme at a glance.

The rate of return is a kind of product with an annualized rate of more than 6%, and there must be a question mark.

A large number of financial consultants and overwhelming advertisements are one kind, and these costs will eventually be reflected in the cost of capital, and consumers will pay for it.

There are also all kinds of people who pull people's heads and give commissions, and those who develop offline are all scams.

To put it all together, with such a high capital cost, how do they earn so much money for investors?

Why can they do things that banks can't?

If the other party cannot explain the business in detail, cannot answer your questions directly, and always emphasizes various new projects, various strong support, and various futures, then it is a scam.

If the other party can give some business data, but it is obviously different from the market conditions, for example, the financial lease interest rate of the year is abnormally the same, then it is a scam.

If you can use enterprise query tools to check whether there are affiliated companies under the name of the other party’s executives that participated in the company’s bid issuance, and check the registered capital registration time and paid-in capital of these companies, you can also find scams.

But these are actually not the point, because everyone actually understands these principles.

What everyone really wants to replenish is not the knowledge in the head, but the greed and desire in the heart.

Those of us ordinary people with no skills are holding such a high interest rate, don't our hands tremble?

Shaky hands are just shaking hands for counting money, and counting money is a physical effort.

Back then, Ponzi's scam, which doubled its income several times a year, was known to be problematic.

How could Wall Street elites not feel that there was a fraud in Madoff's scam, which lasted for more than ten years with a 10% return?

Everyone knows it, but they all feel that they are not the last one, and they can make a difference from the fire.

A lot of people's money isn't theirs, they're just keeping it for another scam.

When you are filled with greed, Ponzi will smile behind you.