Here comes the Ponz

When Bernie Madoff made his guilty plea last week, the frustrations of journalists and victims were evident. Mr. Madoff's statement was short on detail, and his oft-highlighted smile nearly Iagoan: "What you know, you know," it seemed to say.

It lookes like we won't get any direct answers from the perpetrator of the greatest financial swindle in history...but we might be able to gain some understanding by looking at his predecessor in notoriety -- or so says Ron Chernow in this week's New Yorker:

Although Madoff's scheme dates back to at least the early nineteen-nineties, we understand little abou the genesis of his criminal operation. Still, a new biography of another grand-scale Ponzi schemer, to be published next month, allows for some educated guesses. The Match King, by Frank Partnoy, a law professor at the University of San Diego, is an engorssing study of Ivar Kreuger, a Swedish financier of the nineteen-twenties ... [who] lifted the prosaic Ponzi fraud to a new level of sophistication and engaged in corporate finagling on a dizzying scale.

The details of Kreuger's schemes are incredible -- but the book shines in the telling. Viz., the starred review in Publishers Weekly:

Partnoy achieves a nuanced portrait of the charismatic and corrupt financial genius whose advice was sought by Herbert Hoover and other heads of state. A fascinating depiction of a man and his era (Greta Garbo makes memorable cameos), this book is a snapshot of a time all too familiar now: a speculative real estate bubble, unbridled consumer spending, investors buying derivatives based on sketchy information and a Wall Street operating by its own rules.

The Match King: Ivar Kreuger, the Financial Genius behind a Century of Wall Street Scandals (PublicAffairs, 9781586487430)