A century ago, The Wall Street Journal suggested sardonically that the mountain of international debt left over from the Great War could be cleared up just by placing a few bucks with a Boston investment wizard named Charles Ponzi. “Give Ponzi a million,” the unsigned article chided on Aug. 2, 1920, “and in a twelvemonth he will expand it for you to some $25,000,000; in two years to $657,000,000; in three years to $16,885,000,000. Surely the Allies could spare him a million, and within three years clean up that debt tangle. Germany might hire him to wipe out the indemnity within four years.”By...

Source: Wall Street Journal October 15, 2020 16:07 UTC