Ponzinomics
The Untold Story of Multi-Level Marketing
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Narrated by:
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Robert L. FitzPatrick
About this listen
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 fully explain how the legitimate business of "direct selling" was turned into pyramid recruiting.
Ponzinomics dissects the elements that distinguish multi-level marketing from legitimate sales, and reveals how a business could become a delusional belief. Ponzinomics reveals how multi-level marketing helped to lay a foundation on Main Street 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.
©2020 Robert L. FitzPatrick (P)2021 Robert L. FitzPatrickListeners also enjoyed...
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Imagine running a business without a strategy. It would be akin to driving blindfolded, to building a house without a blueprint. The concept of strategy changed all that, paving the way for the creation of the modern corporate world. The Lords of Strategy provides listeners with a deeper understanding of the world they compete in, and a sharper eye for what works — and what doesn’t — when forging strategy.
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Super Book of Narrow Interest
- By Roy on 08-23-10
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Alibaba
- The House That Jack Ma Built
- By: Duncan Clark
- Narrated by: Jim Meskimen
- Length: 9 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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In just a decade and a half, Jack Ma, a man from modest beginnings who started out as an English teacher, founded Alibaba and built it into one of the world's largest companies, an e-commerce empire on which hundreds of millions of Chinese consumers depend. Alibaba's $25 billion IPO in 2014 was the largest global IPO ever. A Rockefeller of his age who is courted by CEOs and presidents around the world, Jack is an icon for China's booming private sector.
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Strange: Best part of story happens "off-screen"
- By Tristan on 09-02-16
By: Duncan Clark
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Battle for the Soul of Capitalism
- By: John C. Bogle
- Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki
- Length: 9 hrs and 16 mins
- Abridged
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There is no one better qualified to tell us about the failures of the American financial system and the grotesque abuses that have taken place in recent years than John C. Bogle, founder and former chief executive of the Vanguard mutual-fund group. This legendary mutual-fund pioneer has witnessed firsthand the innermost workings of the financial industry for more than 50 years and has set the standards for sound investment strategies and stewardship.
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Do You Own a Mutual Fund?
- By M. Kettell on 02-02-08
By: John C. Bogle
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A Capitalism for the People
- Recapturing the Lost Genius of American Prosperity
- By: Luigi Zingales
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
- Length: 11 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Born in Italy, University of Chicago economist Luigi Zingales witnessed firsthand the consequences of high inflation and unemployment - paired with rampant nepotism and cronyism - on a country’s economy. This experience profoundly shaped his professional interests, and in 1988 he arrived in the United States, armed with a political passion and the belief that economists should not merely interpret the world, but should change it for the better.
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Enjoyable but a tad predictable.
- By Kevin on 12-24-12
By: Luigi Zingales
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The Fine Print
- How Big Companies Use 'Plain English' to Rob You Blind
- By: David Cay Johnston
- Narrated by: Todd McLaren
- Length: 12 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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David Cay Johnston has made a name for himself as the defender of the common man, calling out the rich and powerful for cheating the system at the expense of everyone else. Whether he's exposing unjust loopholes in the tax code that help the rich get richer or pointing out how powerful corporations pocket government subsidies at excessive taxpayer expense, Johnston is an eloquent town crier for justice and equality.
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A must listen if you love or hate Trump
- By Rob D on 04-19-17
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Frenemies
- The Epic Disruption of the Ad Business (And Everything Else)
- By: Ken Auletta
- Narrated by: Jonathan Todd Ross
- Length: 12 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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An intimate and profound reckoning with the changes buffeting the $2 trillion global advertising and marketing business from the perspective of its most powerful players, by the best-selling author of Googled. Advertising and marketing touches on every corner of our lives, and is the invisible fuel powering almost all media. Complain about it though we might, without it the world would be a darker place. And of all the industries wracked by change in the digital age, few have been turned on its head as dramatically as this one has.
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Good; not for beginners
- By DV on 10-05-18
By: Ken Auletta
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Reckless Endangerment
- How Outsized Ambition, Greed, and Corruption Led to Economic Armageddon
- By: Gretchen Morgenson, Joshua Rosner
- Narrated by: L. J. Ganser
- Length: 11 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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In Reckless Endangerment, Gretchen Morgenson, the star business columnist of The New York Times, exposes how the watchdogs who were supposed to protect the country from financial harm were actually complicit in the actions that finally blew up the American economy.
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Required reading
- By David on 10-24-11
By: Gretchen Morgenson, and others
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Putin's Kleptocracy
- Who Owns Russia?
- By: Karen Dawisha
- Narrated by: Robert Petkoff
- Length: 14 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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The raging question in the world today is who is the real Vladimir Putin and what are his intentions. Karen Dawisha’s brilliant Putin’s Kleptocracy provides an answer, describing how Putin got to power, the cabal he brought with him, the billions they have looted, and his plan to restore the Greater Russia.
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Who owns Russia
- By Amazon Customer on 11-09-14
By: Karen Dawisha
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Moral Mazes
- The World of Corporate Managers
- By: Robert Jackall
- Narrated by: Johnny Heller
- Length: 12 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Robert Jackall's Moral Mazes offers an eye-opening account of how corporate managers think the world works, and how big organizations shape moral consciousness. Based on extensive interviews with managers at every level of two industrial firms and of a large public relations agency, IMoral Mazes takes the reader inside the intricate world of the corporation.
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Well written; poorly narrated
- By C. Youngblood on 09-30-13
By: Robert Jackall
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Wall Street
- A History, Updated Edition
- By: Charles R. Geisst
- Narrated by: Stephen McLaughlin
- Length: 27 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Wall Street is an unending source of legend - and nightmares. It is a universal symbol of both the highest aspirations of economic prosperity and the basest impulses of greed and deception. Charles R. Geisst's Wall Street is at once a chronicle of the street itself - from the days when the wall was merely a defensive barricade built by Peter Stuyvesant - and an engaging economic history of the United States, a tale of profits and losses, enterprising spirits, and key figures that transformed America into the most powerful economy in the world.
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Many books in one; best linking of stories, eras
- By Philo on 03-23-14
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48 Liberal Lies About American History
- (That You Probably Learned in School)
- By: Larry Schweikart
- Narrated by: Sean Pratt
- Length: 10 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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The problem isn’t that liberal authors present their opinions or interpretations of history from an obvious left-wing bias. Students learn, for example, that the Founding Fathers were elitists who drafted the Constitution in order to protect their own economic interests; that Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation only because he needed black soldiers; that racist groups such as the KKK represented our society in the early twentieth century.
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amazingly accurate...
- By Anthony on 01-23-16
By: Larry Schweikart
What listeners say about Ponzinomics
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Siim Ošur
- 01-04-23
Ponzinomics, the truth about MLM scams..
I was as most people in their lifetimes now, also, recruited into the Amway scam. For me, it went rather painless thankfully. Only about 2 months of time wasted and about a thousand EUR. Estonia.
This book describes what I later learned for what it was. A brainwashing cult. You will get a glimpse of the origins of the roots of the pyramid scam companies and their endless recruitment chain schemes. This book will tell you all you need to know about why it's a scam. It will not tell you how to rescue loved ones from it. But nonetheless, it will educate you on what it truly is aside the smoke and mirrors.
I wholeheartedly reccommend. For whenever someone of your close ones ever comes to you with the disguised proposition of a social gathering and then to reel you in, you will know to tell them what they're really dealing with.
Conclusively, MLM pyramids are modern day slavery.
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- Du_you_listen
- 07-06-23
Essential reading for Americans
This book illuminates a part of American society that is too infrequently examined or understood by most.
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- Amazon Customer
- 01-07-22
An accurate and well written illumination of MLMs.
The history thru current state of MLMs is fascinating and frightening. A book all should read to be better equipt for the next invitation to "an incredible opportunity".
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1 person found this helpful
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- Ashley Waldroup
- 04-10-22
Helpful
Just getting out of an MLM myself, this was very helpful and insightful. I enjoyed learning about the beginnings of MLM and how politicians have played a role in furthering this deceptive practice. I can only hope that Mr. Fitzpatrick is right, that MLM is getting closer to crumbling.
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- Diva Dizzy Dezzi
- 03-05-23
Really Good Insight
As a former MLM salesperson, with limited success in a number of different companies, this book was an interesting glimpse behind the looking glass of the individuals and organizations who continue to perpetuate this scam on people hoping to get their hands on the American or at least (for non-Americans) the capitalist dream. I highly recommend this to anyone curious about the puppet masters who proliferate the market enticing the young, the struggling, and predominantly female individuals trying to make it and failing from one MLM to the next in search of success that is elusive if not all together impossible.
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- G. Doriscard
- 02-28-22
Great book from a great author/researcher
I don’t usually writes reviews, but this book’s message is sorely needed right now. Anyone interested in knowing about Commercial cults should read/ listen to this book. Great job Mr. Fitzpatrick, great job.
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1 person found this helpful
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- DA Hopkins
- 04-03-22
A really good and informative book.
The book delivers on the numbers and history of MLM's. If a person is thinking of joining an MLM they need to read this book first.
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- Jessica Thoman
- 05-17-22
Fantastic listen!
If you are even a little interested in MLM's, listen to this book. I like the audio version better than the paperback and his voice is very soothing. The information is jam packed and detailed! Highly recommend!
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2 people found this helpful
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- CmSt3ampunk
- 12-27-22
interesting and fun listen
Well researched and interesting look at MLM. More expansinve than the history laid out in The Dream podcast a few years ago but similar in nature/material covered and still an under covered topic to me. Author does well reading his own book, his voice is entertaining and I had no issues with it despite usually not enjoying when authors take on narration.
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- RedGiraffeMan
- 05-27-22
"Glorified Pyramid Schemes"
This book, so far, has the best book for a general knowledge about multi-level marketing or as I like to call them "Glorified Pyramid Schemes". Recently I had someone close to me being involved with Amway. Luckily I was able to get them out. I have encountered Amway previously on three separate occasions. But didn't know the seriousness of Amway or other MLMs. This book has helped my understanding of the history, the tactics, and thought process of MLMs.
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3 people found this helpful