FRINK Linked Data Fragments server

Matches in SemOpenAlex for { <https://semopenalex.org/work/W3121532233> ?p ?o ?g. }

• W3121532233 startingPage "1787" @default.
• W3121532233 abstract "Mr. Lay, I've concluded that you're perhaps the most accomplished confidence man since Charles Ponzi. I'd say you were a carnival barker, except that might not be fair to carnival barkers. A carny will at least tell you up front that he's running a shell game. You, Mr. Lay, were running what purported to be the seventh largest company in America. - Senator Peter Fitzgerald, addressing former Enron chief executive Kenneth Lay, February 13, 2002. Temptation. It lies at the heart of financial swindles. The promise of 50% returns in three months can lure thousands of investors-so too can a stock that soars 500% in three years. But those who are tempted are often skeptical. Before they invest, they want to know how one can enjoy such supracompetitive returns. The answer usually is a facially plausible story, though with a bit of mystery attached. The mystery is often touted as the reason that the investment opportunity is exclusive to the entrepreneur who discovered it. It is what ensures that the gains are not competed away. The classic case remains that of Charles Ponzi. While not a very adept con artist-he was caught several times-in a six-month period in 1920, Ponzi convinced ten thousand investors to part with an aggregate of $9.5 million.1 He promised amazing returns-50% in ninety days.2 As a testament to his financial wizardry, Ponzi often paid off his investors in half the time he had initially promised.3 How could he work such financial magic? Allegedly, Ponzi had discovered a lucrative arbitrage opportunity in postal reply coupons. Postal reply coupons allowed the sender of a letter to ensure that the recipient in another country would be able to obtain sufficient postage to respond.4 For example, a letter writer in America would purchase a reply coupon here and send it along with a letter to a relative in another country, say, Spain. The Spanish relative could then redeem the coupon for Spanish stamps sufficient to send a reply. Ponzi noticed a pricing discrepancy in the postal reply coupons. One could buy a coupon in one country for, say, one penny, and redeem it in another for six cents worth of stamps.5 This opportunity existed because exchange rates had been set in a postal convention in 1906, well before the outbreak of the Great War. The Great War changed the relative value of many currencies, but the rates for postal exchange coupons remained fixed. The failure to adjust the exchange rates on postal reply coupons meant that a trader could buy a postal reply coupon in a country where the relative value of the currency had declined, redeem it in a country where the relative value of the currency had increased, and turn a profit. There were, in theory, gains to be had by exploiting government inertia. But transaction costs limit any opportunity to profit from arbitrage. Consider the steps necessary to exploit this state of affairs. Money would be gathered in the United States. This money then had to be converted into a foreign currency and put in the hands of an agent in the appropriate foreign country. The agent would have to buy the postal reply coupons in large quantity, although there were limits on the number of coupons that could be bought at one time. The agent then had to send the coupons back to the United States. Another agent would have to redeem them. Given these elaborate requirements, it is hard to imagine how anyone could purchase a IMAGE FORMULA10 sufficient number of reply coupons to support the millions of dollars that Ponzi collected. When pressed by potential investors on how he could overcome these costs, Ponzi resorted to a favorite theme of the con artist-that such information was a trade secret that could not be disclosed.6 After all, letting the cat out of the bag would allow his competitors to come in and seize the opportunity he had discovered.7 A 50% return based on a somewhat plausible story coupled with the allure of a trade secret proved irresistible to over ten thousand investors who willingly gave their money to Ponzi. …" @default.
• W3121532233 created "2021-02-01" @default.
• W3121532233 creator A5010473170 @default.
• W3121532233 creator A5070870446 @default.
• W3121532233 date "2002-11-01" @default.
• W3121532233 modified "2023-09-23" @default.
• W3121532233 title "Four (Or Five) Easy Lessons from Enron" @default.
• W3121532233 hasPublicationYear "2002" @default.
• W3121532233 type Work @default.
• W3121532233 sameAs 3121532233 @default.
• W3121532233 citedByCount "5" @default.
• W3121532233 countsByYear W31215322332013 @default.
• W3121532233 countsByYear W31215322332014 @default.
• W3121532233 crossrefType "journal-article" @default.
• W3121532233 hasAuthorship W3121532233A5010473170 @default.
• W3121532233 hasAuthorship W3121532233A5070870446 @default.
• W3121532233 hasConcept C138885662 @default.
• W3121532233 hasConcept C162324750 @default.
• W3121532233 hasConcept C17744445 @default.
• W3121532233 hasConcept C18296254 @default.
• W3121532233 hasConcept C199539241 @default.
• W3121532233 hasConcept C27206212 @default.
• W3121532233 hasConcept C2779271205 @default.
• W3121532233 hasConceptScore W3121532233C138885662 @default.
• W3121532233 hasConceptScore W3121532233C162324750 @default.
• W3121532233 hasConceptScore W3121532233C17744445 @default.
• W3121532233 hasConceptScore W3121532233C18296254 @default.
• W3121532233 hasConceptScore W3121532233C199539241 @default.
• W3121532233 hasConceptScore W3121532233C27206212 @default.
• W3121532233 hasConceptScore W3121532233C2779271205 @default.
• W3121532233 hasIssue "6" @default.
• W3121532233 hasLocation W31215322331 @default.
• W3121532233 hasOpenAccess W3121532233 @default.
• W3121532233 hasPrimaryLocation W31215322331 @default.
• W3121532233 hasRelatedWork W1138781263 @default.
• W3121532233 hasRelatedWork W126219677 @default.
• W3121532233 hasRelatedWork W174265101 @default.
• W3121532233 hasRelatedWork W1992707539 @default.
• W3121532233 hasRelatedWork W2006784386 @default.
• W3121532233 hasRelatedWork W2112799123 @default.
• W3121532233 hasRelatedWork W214488906 @default.
• W3121532233 hasRelatedWork W225807831 @default.
• W3121532233 hasRelatedWork W236570179 @default.
• W3121532233 hasRelatedWork W274029854 @default.
• W3121532233 hasRelatedWork W274308636 @default.
• W3121532233 hasRelatedWork W310145672 @default.
• W3121532233 hasRelatedWork W3125362540 @default.
• W3121532233 hasRelatedWork W317453457 @default.
• W3121532233 hasRelatedWork W334754295 @default.
• W3121532233 hasRelatedWork W344805046 @default.
• W3121532233 hasRelatedWork W58597282 @default.
• W3121532233 hasRelatedWork W777852541 @default.
• W3121532233 hasRelatedWork W88250027 @default.
• W3121532233 hasRelatedWork W208280239 @default.
• W3121532233 hasVolume "55" @default.
• W3121532233 isParatext "false" @default.
• W3121532233 isRetracted "false" @default.
• W3121532233 magId "3121532233" @default.
• W3121532233 workType "article" @default.