$50 Billion Pyramid

In these times when institutions and individuals have lost billions by over-leveraged investing in complex financial derivatives, it's interesting to see that some people still manage to lose money the old-fashioned way--in a pyramid scheme.

When federal agents arrested Bernard Madoff in New York last week, it brought an end to what may be the largest fraud scheme in Wall Street history in which investors may have lost up to $50 billion.

In the same vein, I've since learned about an even more unsophisticated way to lose money: a ponzi crawl.

The Urban Dictionary defines a ponzi crawl as:

A pub crawl that adds a new person to buy a round at each location. Each new person is promised that they will get free drinks at all the future bars if they buy this round. Obviously, whoever joins the ponzi crawl last gets screwed!

Let's get some suckers to buy us beer on a ponzi crawl this weekend.

While increasingly complex and sophisticated ways to swindle people out of money will continue to emerge, the tried and true remain steadfastly reliable.