Replace Ponzi with Madoff
Sukumar Ranganathan -
Monday, December 15, 2008 8:03 PM
Should we seriously reconsider renaming Ponzi schemes as Madoff schemes?
According to this entry in Wikipedia, Charles Ponzi's scheme made him around $15 million (he eventually returned a third back to investors) in the 1920s.
Using this wonderful website, I calculated the current worth (fine, worth in 2007) of that amount.
Here's what I got
$155.2 million using the consumer price index
$123.8 million using the GDP deflator
$ 378.15 million using the value of the consumer bundle
$ 523 million using the unskilled wage index
$825.7 million using the nominal GDP per capita
and $23.43 billion using the relative share of GDP
With estimates suggesting that Bernard Madoff's fraud is worth $50 billion, Ponzi's take seems chump change.
I'd suggest we stop calling this a Ponzi scheme and start calling it a Madoff scheme.
Those interested in the definitions of the economic terms used to calculate the current value of $15 million will find it here