Ponzi's Scheme - Book Review

Before Charles Ponzi (1882-1949) sailed from Italy to the shores of America in 1903, his father assured him that the streets were really paved with gold - and that Ponzi would be able to get a piece. Ponzi learned as soon as he disembarked that though the streets were often cobblestone, he could still make a fortune in a culture caught in the throes of the Gilded Age. This book chronicles Ponzi's mercurial rise and fall as he conjured up one get-rich-quick scheme after another. Charming, gregarious and popular, Ponzi devised and carried out the scheme that carries his name in 1920 in the open (and with a brief period of approval from Boston's newspapers and financial sector). Many investors did indeed double their investments, as Ponzi would use money of new investors to pay old investors, and Ponzi himself became a millionaire. Eventually, the Boston Post uncovered this "robbing Peter to pay Paul" system (as it was then known), and Ponzi's life unraveled.

I had high hopes for this book and thought it would be an interesting journey through the life of the man responsible for one of the most well known get-rich-quick schemes in history - the Ponzi Scheme. While it did provide a lot of details about the life of Charles Ponzi, it wasn't very colorful or interesting. It read a lot like a high school book report - just the facts. I will say that the author had a high attention to detail and went to great lengths to collect the information contained in the book straight from the families of those involved. While I'm not disputing it was informative and factual, it was just a bit dry and boring. Also, there were a lot of people that were involved in Ponzi's life in one way or another and it seemed that each one was described in great detail with a history of each. That just filled the book with a lot of useless information that didn't really relate to Ponzi or his scheme. In the right hands, this book could be turned into a fascinating read (or movie), but not in its current form. Don't be conned into reading this one.


Rating: 2.5 of 5 stars
Would I read it again: No

Ponzi's Scheme: The True Story of a Financial Legend
by Mitchell Zuckoff
Hardcover: 380 pages
March 2005