Ponzi Mania

See: Ponzi Scheme.

We’ve all heard of Beatlemania, where fans in the 1960s went absolutely and completely bonkers over a little English rock band known as the Beatles. People cried at concerts, wrote sometimes-creepy love letters to the band members, bought everything that said “Beatles” on it, and even threw their unmentionables on stage while the band performed. But catchy lyrics and shaggy haircuts aren’t the only things that can inspire a little societal mania, oh no. In 2008, those party animals over at the SEC developed their own new craze, and they called it “Ponzi mania.”

To better understand what Ponzi mania is—because it’s not nearly as fun as Beatlemania, and probably no one was throwing their underwear at SEC personnel as a result of it—let’s flash back to late 2008. In addition to the credit crunch, the subprime mortgage debacle, and all kinds of other economic woes, the country was introduced to a shady trickster named Bernie Madoff. This diabolical dude orchestrated the biggest Ponzi scheme in history, bilking investors out of over $65 billion before he was eventually caught and prosecuted.

As a result, the SEC and federal investigators saw red. They made it a priority to find and destroy every Ponzi scheme that had ever even considered existing. They were going to dedicate everything they had to eradicating this scourge from the face of the earth. Ponzi schemes were headline news. Everyone was talking about it. The term “Ponzi scheme” had even become a household expression. Ponzi mania had taken over, and the SEC didn’t even have to put out a chart-topping album to make it happen.