A Ponzi scheme is one of the simplest, albeit effective, financial frauds to engineer, and new schemes keep coming forward. Despite this, however, people continue to invest in them. How are we to account for the seemingly never-ending lure of such schemes? In providing answers to this central...

1. The essence of the problem -- 2. The trade perspective -- 3. National accounting perspectives -- 4. The international perspective -- 5. Nature of the adjustment mechanisms -- 6. The sustainability of the deficit -- 7. The demand for US assets -- 8. China and the United States -- 9. Conclusion.