Ponzimonium

See: Ponzi Scheme.

The year was 2009, and all across the country, Ponzi schemes dominated the news. Investors were terrified of falling victim to one, if they hadn’t already, and federal investigators were hunting down Ponzi schemers like they were going out of style (which they were). In fact, by March of 2009, the SEC had filed charges pertaining to 15 Ponzi schemes. This might not sound like a whole lot, but consider this: in all of 2008, they only filed charges in 13 Ponzi-related cases, total. It seemed like Ponzi schemes were everywhere, and as a result, the entire country found itself suffering from a painful bout of Ponzimonium.

“Ponzimonium” is a portmanteau of “Ponzi” and “pandemonium,” and it was coined by CFTC commissioner Bart Chilton in 2009. He said that more Ponzi schemes were being uncovered then than had ever been seen before. According to him, the CFTC (that’s the Commodities Futures Trading Commission, for the curious) were investigating hundreds—yes, hundreds—of potential Ponzi scams. Thanks to Bernie Madoff and his $65 billion Ponzi-style robbery, investigators and investors were on high alert, looking for anything that could signal the existence of yet another Ponzi scheme. All of those additional allegations, investigations, and, in some cases, prosecutions make up what we refer to as Ponzimonium.