Lying for money : how legendary frauds reveal the workings of our world

Includes bibliographical references (pages 291-296) and index.

A scandal in Mayfair 1 The basics 2 Long firms 3 The snowball effect 4 Counterfeits 5 Cooked books 6 Control fraud 7 The recommender future 8 Cold cases 9 Market crimes 10 Defrauding the government 11 The bottom line.

Financial crime seems horribly complicated but there are only so many ways you can con someone out of what's theirs. In fact, there are four. A veteran regulatory economist and market analyst, Dan Davies has years of experience picking the bones out of some of the most famous frauds of the modern age. Now he reveals the big picture that emerges from their labyrinths of deceit. Along the way you'll find out how to fake a gold mine with a wedding ring, a file and a shotgun. You'll see how close Charles Ponzi, the king of pyramid schemes, came to acquiring his own private navy. You'll learn how fraud has shaped the entire development of the modern world economy. And you'll discover whether you have what it takes to be a white-collar criminal mastermind, if that's what you want. (Which you don't. You really, really don't.).