Is the day after Christmas the day of Christmas Remorse... let's ask the financial district:Retrieved [verbatim] by Pat Darnell
Although Ponzi served all comers, a majority of his customers shared his Italian roots. He never advertised and spoke to reporters
only after he was a huge success, relying instead on his paisanos to spread news of his wizardry. As Ponzi walked through a crowd one day, a woman yelled: "You're the greatest Italian in history!" Ponzi demurred, saying he was only the third-greatest: "Christopher Columbus discovered America and Marconi discovered the wireless." But another fan answered: "You discovered the money!"If the allegations against Madoff are true - he reportedly admitted that his $50 billion business was "basically, a giant Ponzi scheme" - he borrowed key ideas from Ponzi and tailored others to fit a different age.
Madoff and Ponzi: Reflections of their times [SOURCE]
By Mitchell Zuckoff | December 21, 2008
BEYOND a taste for expensive suits and fancy financial footwork, Bernard Madoff and Charles Ponzi might at first seem to have little in common.
Equally telling is the way both men allegedly exploited investors' motivations, using mirror-image strategies.
Ponzi maximized post-World War I populist resentments against Boston Brahmins, telling reporters: "The truth is, bankers and businessmen have been doing plenty for themselves under the present banking systems, but they have done little for anybody else." His investors cheered and rained money.
Madoff took a 21st-century approach, tapping into an anti-populist desire for exclusive access. His arrest unleashed stories of wealthy people who begged to invest and others who joined his country clubs to win his favor. The absence of volatility in his returns 
further convinced his select investors that they were in on something special.
© Copyright 2008 Globe Newspaper Company.
PHOTO: Stephen Harper leader of the Conservative Party of Canada, was elected the twenty-second Prime Minister of Canada in January 2006. Can't get enough; here's more for you -- Scandalpedia... HERE
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