Talk:Pyramid scheme

Linuxgal's edit
I have cut linux's girls edit The recent bubble in housing prices worldwide was a kind of pyramid scheme in which the income stream was supplied by ever rising home valuations. These mortgages, regardless of the underlying creditworthiness of the borrowers, were bundled into securities which were then traded internationally between financial institutions as A-paper when in fact they were mostly sub-prime.

When housing prices began to slip late in 2006, this pyramid scheme was exposed, but the exposure by banks and other lenders was so vast and far-reaching ("Too Big To Fail") that it was thought a complete meltdown would destroy the entire global financial system. So governments stepped in to bail the lenders out, thus keeping the Ponzi scheme afloat yet a while longer with sovereign debt largely financed by currency held by nations with a current account surplus, such as China and Germany. In the new phase of the crisis it is nations themselves, such as Greece, or states like California, that claim they are Too Big To Fail. Whilst Madoff was running a Ponzi scheme, the banks were not running a pyramid scheme as they did not need people to continuously buy into the scheme the way a pyramid scheme does. They just off set the risk by dividing the assets. Thoughts? 11:43, 5 May 2010 (UTC)


 * Deal me out. I won't even come back next year, imagine that.  Linuxgal (talk) 13:19, 5 May 2010 (UTC)
 * What? I am just asking for clarification on whether/if/how this fits into the article or not. 13:32, 5 May 2010 (UTC)

Bitcoin based Ponzi schemes
We should list the latest trend in pyramid schemes, such as USI-Tech which was just shut down in Texas.

https://www.ssb.texas.gov/news-publications/bitcoin-promoter-usi-tech-hit-emergency-order

http://behindmlm.com/companies/usi-tech/usi-tech-enters-third-generation-of-scamming-with-tech-coin-ico/

http://behindmlm.com/companies/usi-tech/usi-tech-securities-fraud-emergency-cease-and-desist-issued-in-texas/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NwfA2zI9-fU 17:37, 3 January 2018 (UTC)
 * Paging, David, your expertise is requested. 16:27, 4 January 2018 (UTC)

Do the Math
2^30 !> the population of the Earth, and it still isn't if you include all of the participants in the previous levels (that would be 2 x 2^30 - 1) Roleybob (talk) 15:32, 4 March 2020 (UTC)

Non-recruiting religions
Yazidism is mentioned, but not Judaism? Vivisectionist (talk) 03:03, 21 May 2021 (UTC)

Collecting, auctions and pyramid schemes
To what extent are auctions etc a form of pyramid scheme that can continue for a long time (with one or more bottlenecks when interest in the items being collected and dispersed declines)? Anna Livia (talk) 16:18, 29 June 2021 (UTC)