Did you know that Tannenbaum means 'Christmas Tree'?

David Bullard:
My late father taught me at an early age about the “greater fool liquidity theory” and it has stood me in good stead throughout my life. The theory simply states that anything has a higher value until you find that nobody wants to buy it. An example….if you buy a house for R5 million it’s a great deal providing you can find a greater fool to buy it for R6 mln. If you can’t then you are the greater fool and it’s game over.

SHOOT: Great column David. And these Ponzi schemers epitomise the worst excesses in this era of extravagance and self indulgence. But it also takes two to tango. You can't have a schemer without flocks of greedy, money grubbing sheep. But they'll be baying for blood now. Once the embarassment wears off.

clipped from www.richmarksentinel.co.za Isn’t it amazing how people who scam others have fabulously fitting names? Bernard Madoff “made off” with billions of dollars of other people’s money. Now we have an apparent Ponzi scheme of our own operated by a man called Tannenbaum, the German name for a Christmas tree. Well I fear there won’t be many presents under the tree this year children. Even Sir Fred (the shred) Goodwin had an appropriate surname for a man who sunk a bank and collected a fortune of shareholder’s money in return. How bad losses can lead to good wins. The details of the local Ponzi scheme are still a little sketchy at the moment and Barry Tannenbaum has assured members of the media that this is not a Ponzi scheme but simply a case of cash flow problems. In the circumstances you wouldn’t expect him to say otherwise would you? However, in essence is what Barry Tannenbaum did any different from what the global banking system did over the past ten years? Why is toxic debt so different from a Ponzi scheme?