In the comments to Cryptos – waiting for the bids… super elite notes:

A Brief History of Ponzi

Charles Ponzi became famous as a result of the mania he created in 1920 in the midst of the post World War depression. His scheme involved convincing the public that he had a profitable business (arbitraging price differentials in International Reply Coupons, or IRCs). But the market for IRCs was too tiny to plausibly support the many millions of profit that Charles Ponzi claimed to be making, so suspicions grew and his scheme collapsed. He started with nearly nothing, made millions, lost the faith of his investors, and finally pled guilty all in the same year.

The stock market mania in the 1920’s then led to the Great Depression, and in the 1930’s a chain letter craze swept across the US.

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