Just as "Alzheimer's" and "prima donna" are words that aren't intuitive for children to conjure up in their heads - especially when Alzheimer's sounds like old timers and prima donna sounds like pre-Madonna - the Bernard Madoff scandal introduces a new problematic phrase for kids to misspeak. Mark my words, "Ponzi scheme" will be another confusing term that fools kids because, let's be honest, your average kid isn't going to be too familiar with the obscure history of early twentieth century, New York swindlers. A little history from Wikipedia:
Charles Ponzi (March 3, 1882 – January 18, 1949) was one of the greatest swindlers in American history. The term "Ponzi scheme" is a widely known description of any scam that pays early investors returns from the investments of later investors. He promised clients a 50% profit within 45 days, or 100% profit within 90 days, by buying discounted postal reply coupons in other countries and redeeming them at face value in the United States as a form of arbitrage.
Yeah, anyway. What is more likely is that kids will refer to Ponzi schemes as "Potsie schemes."
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