Ponzinomics

The Untold Story of Multi-Level Marketing

English language

Published Nov. 30, 2020 by FitzPatrick Management Inc..

ISBN:
0578443511
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4 stars (2 reviews)

Ponzinomics by Robert L. FitzPatrick, author of False Profits, is the first comprehensive account of how "multi-level marketing" was created in America, escaped criminal and civil prosecution and spread all over the world. It is the first book to deeply investigate the multi-level marketing phenomenon and to fully explain how the legitimate business of "direct selling" was turned into deceptive pyramid recruiting. Ponzinomics dissects the elements that distinguish "multi-level marketing" from legitimate sales, and reveals how a "business" could become a delusional belief and a pyramid scheme a pseudo-business model. Ponzinomics reveals how multi-level marketing helped to lay a foundation on Main Street for the presidency of Donald Trump with a program of pervasive deception, financial self-destruction, authoritarian leader-worship and economic make-believe. Ponzinomics is a discomforting look at the threads of American culture, business and politics that were woven into what has become the largest scam on Main Street.

1 edition

Review of 'Ponzinomics' on 'Storygraph'

4 stars

Very informative, but jumps around a lot between setting up a timeline of events and anecdotes. While I learned a lot, I think it would've been easier to follow if the book wasn't constantly switching between the 80s and the 50s/60s, and also if the full story of the connection between Nutrilite and Amway was finished. The book has a bad habit of assuming that the reader already has a lot of background information, taking a kind of "as you know" tone on the rise of Herbalife, which makes it hard to recommend to people who are not already familiar with how deeply rooted these scams are in American culture. While it works as a great reference point for how MLMs are tied to American politics and have always been pyramid schemes, I think it needed a few more rounds of editing to finish the picture it was painting.

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4 stars