Charles Ponzi is perhaps the most influential economist in history. His financial innovations would shape the policies of everyone from Franklin Roosevelt to Barack Obama and every big city mayor of the past fifty years. The loyal Democrat donor, Bernie Madoff, would devote his life to honing the skills Ponzi contributed to the world. Our Social Security system, as well as our public pensions, owe their existence to Ponzi's unending wisdom.
To be fair, the Republicans have been every bit as loyal to Ponzi's principles even though they sometimes badmouth them in public. Ponzi's broad public appeal would insure that monuments honoring this innovator would never be desecrated. Let it be noted that Carlo The Great's humanitarian accomplishments were limited to the financial realm.
From Biography.com:
When he was released from jail, Ponzi got involved in yet another criminal venture, smuggling Italian immigrants across the border into the United States. This too landed him in jail—he spent two years behind bars in Atlanta.
Charles Ponzi was Democrat's Democrat whose life would shape public thinking to this very day. Want to see the soul of the Democratic Party? Google Charles Ponzi. From Mauldin Economics:
The website Pension Tsunami posts scores of articles, written all across America, about pension problems. We find out today that in places like New York and Chicago and Cook County, pension funds have more retirees collecting than workers paying into the fund. There are more retired cops in New York and Chicago than there are working cops. And the numbers of retirees just keep growing. On an individual basis, it is smart for the Chicago police officer to retire as early possible, locking in benefits, go on to another job that offers more retirement benefits, and round out a career by working at least three years at a private job that qualifies the officer for Social Security. Many police and fire pensions are based on the last three years of income; so in the last three years before they retire, these diligent public servants work enormous amounts of overtime, increasing their annual pay and thus their final pension payouts.
This article is worth reading in its entirety:
We all know that there is a pension crisis, yes, a pension tsunami brewing in places like Puerto Rico and Chicago. We know it's bad but we probably do not grasp just how bad the situation really is. We know the crash is looming but we probably think it is later rather than sooner. We might not be able or willing to grasp the complexities of the situation but we can all understand that when pension recipients exceed contributors, when ex-cops exceed working cops, the time has come...Time to pay tribute to Charles Ponzi.
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