2½ Men, 13% Women, 3 Hookers and a Wiki-Philly Cheesesteak, The Perfect Tutorial On Ponzi Schemes Options

[Jon Awbrey]

The February 7 episode of Two and a Half Men, “Three Hookers and a Philly Cheesesteak”, provides the perfect tutorial on Ponzi schemes.

I have a feeling I'll be referring to it often.

Jon (IMG:http://wikipediareview.com/stimg9x0b4fsr2/1/folder_post_icons/icon9.gif)

[Jon Awbrey]

Trying to correct the defects of Wikipedia Culture by recruiting more participants of any class or kind is like trying to correct the defects of a Ponzi scheme by pumping more dollars into it. And that is not a good thing.

— Jon Awbrey • 25 Feb 2011 (7:58 PM)

The pivot of the analogy is that one is to Credit what the other is to Credibility. As I said on another thread, there's a striking clue in their common etymology — Credit and Credibility are of “Credo” Compact. A Credit Ponzi scheme uses a little bit of credit with one investor to gain a little more credit with next investor and just keeps amping it up until the whole scheme collapses, which it must do sooner or later because the fundamentals needed to back up the trades are totally lacking. A Credibility Ponzi scheme does the same thing with the species currency of specious facts.

— Jon Awbrey • 25 Feb 2011 (11:34 PM)

By way of clarifying what I'm saying here, consider the analogy between a Credit Ponzi Scheme and a Credibility Ponzi Scheme. The pivot of the analogy is strikingly clued by the common etymology — credit and credibility are of “credo” compact.

• A Credit Ponzi scheme uses a little bit of credit with one investor to gain a little more credit with next investor, and so on, and so on, progressively ramping the credit balloon up until the whole scheme collapses, a thing that has to happen sooner or later because the fundamentals needed to back up the exchanges are totally lacking.
• A Credibility Ponzi Scheme does the same thing with the species currency of specious facts.

Jon Awbrey