Ponzi Scheming

The Securities and Exchange Commission probes deeper into the Bernard Madoff $50 BILLION Ponzi scheme.  What is a Ponzi scheme, you ask?  Well, according to the great Wiki of knowledge:

A Ponzi scheme is a fraudulent investment operation that involves paying abnormally high returns to investors out of the money paid in by subsequent investors, rather than from the profit from any real business. It is named after Charles Ponzi.^[1] The term "Ponzi scheme" is used primarily in the United States, while other English-speaking countries do not distinguish verbally between this scheme and other forms of pyramid scheme.^[2]

The kicker comes at the end of the introduction paragraph:

However, it has been shown that entering a Ponzi scheme can be rational even at the last round of the scheme if a government will likely bail out those participating in the Ponzi scheme.^[3]

^{When is a scheme to swindle people out of their money ever rational especially when tax payers' money are used to pay for one person's insatiable greed?}