All ponzi schemes need an initial pool of enthusiasts. For them to be enthusiastic they must receive a payout. Right now BT has a good number of people saying "i'm green" and not telling a lie. There's a second kind that says "i'm green" but they are not being truthful for they detect that being truthful would be detrimental to their cause of recruiting more investors on whose money their payouts depend.
The massive thirty trillion fraud called the "housing boom" is a classic ponzi scheme since the premise was false -"Real Estate always rises in price"- and its momentum depended on a never ending stream of new suckers that would sign on the dotted line of the paper called mortgage.
I bring that epic instance of ponzification of a whole economy to the conversation because the mass psychology of Bubbles and Ponzi Schemes does not vary in history. Masses can and will be self delusional and dishonest. This says nothing of individuals. it's just the herd asserting control over the individual, if honesty impoverishes you, you will learn to lie or die of hunger. With the added bonus that whenever it's time to crash, you can crash all together and keep solace with your brethren.
But the top of the pyramid made out like bandits. So when you evaluate a probabilistically high likelihood of an investment being a ponzi, the real question you have to ask yourself when you put money in is "am i early enough to reap the benefit of the bubble?"
And that is exactly the question i posed to myself. I gave it even odds and with that decided to sink a NOT significant % of my stash into it.
I never endorsed or advertised or prompted anybody to "invest" for that would have tainted me in my own eyes since i would have reaped an extra benefit for recruiting. Neither did i ever try to deny the ponzi scheme accusations which well might eventually prove to be true.
But it boils down to this question: Are you early enough; is there a potential pool of investors behind you to allow you to cash out above your gambled/invested money?
I'm not giving odds on that one as of today -even though i have a well formed opinion on BT's eventual demise- for if anybody assumes this is financial advice it must be because they already own the Brooklyn Bridge.
I wrote this little piece so that detractors and defenders can, perhaps work out another angle of debate. i Have enjoyed the trollnado here and would like to keep the discussion lively at the same time that i thank everybody posting here.
The massive thirty trillion fraud called the "housing boom" is a classic ponzi scheme since the premise was false -"Real Estate always rises in price"- and its momentum depended on a never ending stream of new suckers that would sign on the dotted line of the paper called mortgage.
I bring that epic instance of ponzification of a whole economy to the conversation because the mass psychology of Bubbles and Ponzi Schemes does not vary in history. Masses can and will be self delusional and dishonest. This says nothing of individuals. it's just the herd asserting control over the individual, if honesty impoverishes you, you will learn to lie or die of hunger. With the added bonus that whenever it's time to crash, you can crash all together and keep solace with your brethren.
But the top of the pyramid made out like bandits. So when you evaluate a probabilistically high likelihood of an investment being a ponzi, the real question you have to ask yourself when you put money in is "am i early enough to reap the benefit of the bubble?"
And that is exactly the question i posed to myself. I gave it even odds and with that decided to sink a NOT significant % of my stash into it.
I never endorsed or advertised or prompted anybody to "invest" for that would have tainted me in my own eyes since i would have reaped an extra benefit for recruiting. Neither did i ever try to deny the ponzi scheme accusations which well might eventually prove to be true.
But it boils down to this question: Are you early enough; is there a potential pool of investors behind you to allow you to cash out above your gambled/invested money?
I'm not giving odds on that one as of today -even though i have a well formed opinion on BT's eventual demise- for if anybody assumes this is financial advice it must be because they already own the Brooklyn Bridge.
I wrote this little piece so that detractors and defenders can, perhaps work out another angle of debate. i Have enjoyed the trollnado here and would like to keep the discussion lively at the same time that i thank everybody posting here.