cover of episode The Fraudster's Guide to Magic Money

The Fraudster's Guide to Magic Money

2024/4/26
logo of podcast Cautionary Tales with Tim Harford

Cautionary Tales with Tim Harford
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Tim Harford
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播音员
主持著名true crime播客《Crime Junkie》的播音员和创始人。
Topics
播音员：本集探讨了投资骗局，特别是庞氏骗局和金字塔骗局的运作方式及其危害。通过对多个案例的分析，揭示了这些骗局的共同特征：以高回报为诱饵吸引投资者，利用新投资者的资金支付早期投资者的回报，最终导致资金链断裂，投资者遭受巨大损失。同时，也分析了骗局中欺诈者的行为动机和最终结局。 Tim Harford：对多个案例的深入分析，包括“Women Empowering Women”金字塔骗局和Samuel Israel III的Bayou Capital庞氏骗局，揭示了这些骗局的“滚雪球效应”，即骗局规模不断扩大，最终因无法维持而崩溃。同时，也探讨了骗局中欺诈者的行为动机和最终结局，以及这些骗局对不同经济状况的受害者的影响。 Rob Armstrong：与Tim Harford的讨论中，进一步探讨了市场泡沫与庞氏骗局的相似之处和不同之处，并以亚马逊为例，说明了成功投资与庞氏骗局的区别。讨论中还涉及到比特币的性质，以及庞氏骗局和金字塔骗局的根本区别。 Tim Harford: 本集节目以多个案例分析了庞氏骗局和金字塔骗局的运作机制，以及其最终的失败原因。通过对历史案例和现代案例的对比，揭示了这些骗局的共同特征，以及其对投资者造成的巨大损失。同时，也探讨了骗局中欺诈者的行为动机和最终结局，以及如何避免成为这些骗局的受害者。 Rob Armstrong: 与Tim Harford的讨论中，深入探讨了市场泡沫与庞氏骗局的相似性，并分析了其区别。通过对历史案例和现代案例的分析，揭示了这些骗局的共同特征，以及其对投资者造成的巨大损失。同时，也探讨了骗局中欺诈者的行为动机和最终结局，以及如何避免成为这些骗局的受害者。

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Chapters
The episode begins with a detailed explanation of pyramid schemes, using the example of 'Women Empowering Women', where participants invest money with the promise of significant returns, but the scheme relies on continuous recruitment to sustain itself.

Shownotes Transcript

Sam Israel had a problem. The investors in his hedge fund, Bayou Capital, were expecting spectacular returns. Sam himself had spent years proclaiming the fund's brilliant results. But in reality, Sam had been marking his own homework, publishing fraudulent accounts and using these to lure in new investors. 

What to do? Well, the logical thing of course: wait around for an extraordinary profitable streak, and in the meantime keep up the ruse...

This episode of Cautionary Tales was recorded live at the Bristol Festival of Economics and studies three incredible investment scams. How do pyramid and ponzi schemes snowball out of control, flattening victim and fraudster alike?

For a full list of sources, see the show notes at timharford.com).

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