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March 14, 2023 - Dennis Prager Show
04:21
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*music* You are listening to the best of The Dennis Prager Show.
All righty, everybody.
You're listening to The Dennis Prager Show.
I thank you for doing so.
And while there is a lot in the news that I want to talk to you about, I want to talk first to Mitchell Zukoff, who is a professor at Boston University, a professor of journalism, who has written a book about something that has always fascinated me, and I suspect I'm not alone.
I suspect...
That 98.423% of you listening has heard of the idea of, or the nonsense of, or whatever you wish to call, or the evil of, a Ponzi scheme.
Where people pay in money, some get more money, but eventually a lot of people lose all their money.
Well, it's actually named after somebody.
There was a guy, Ponzi.
And Charles Ponzi is the guy who developed this, and Mitchell Zukoff of Boston University has written The True Story of a Financial Legend.
Ponzi, this is Dennis Prager, and welcome to the program.
Dennis, thank you.
Hi, thank you.
As soon as I saw this book was written, I knew that I had to have you on.
I don't know if there is anybody who has a financial anything named after him.
That is as famous or infamous as Ponzi.
Even Capone didn't get a submachine gun named after him.
That's right.
Yes.
I mean, when you think, I cannot think of a parallel.
This Ponzi fascinates, I guess, I don't think he fascinates people.
They don't even think of him.
In fact, I didn't know it was named after a guy.
So I assume that I'm in the majority in that way.
We all heard of the scheme, but we don't know the guy.
It's funny.
I think you were right.
When you said 98.423% had heard of Ponzi schemes, I think the other half of that equation is that 1.577 actually knew about Charles Ponzi.
Oh, right.
And you're one of them.
Why did you write this book?
For that very reason.
You know, I was a journalist for a long time at the Boston Globe.
And to tell stories that people didn't know has always been a passion of mine.
And the fact that there was this Charles Ponzi.
I was a banking reporter in Boston when banks were failing left and right.
And someone said to me, out of the blue, you know, banks haven't failed like this since the days of Ponzi.
And when I heard Ponzi, like in the scheme, I said, yeah, he was a Boston guy.
And it set me down the path.
You know, what you just said, you like stories, what did you say, of the unknown, or what was the word you used?
Stories that haven't been told.
That's it.
Do you know, I have found, doing this program, those are my favorite interviews, the stories that have not been told.
I had an author on about the one gold coin that's a double eagle.
The double eagle book, yes.
Yes, I tell you.
I sat at the microphone riveted for an hour.
I could not believe how much you learn about history, not just about that unknown item.
Yes.
And so I believe, and believe me, I'm going to let you talk, but I just have to tell you and my listeners, I think the best way to learn history is through the micro.
A history of America in the 1920s may be wonderful.
But if you take one person in the 1920s, you may learn more.
I couldn't agree more.
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