Today -100: July 27, 1920: Of Ponzi schemes, Mannix!, and macaroni

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This seems to be the NYT’s first mention of Ponzi, following an exposé in the Boston Post yesterday, just two days after a puff piece in the same paper. Charles Ponzi’s scam, the Securities Exchange Company, promised to increase investment in it by 50% in 45 days by exploiting currency differences between the US and Italy. The Post demonstrated that the total number of international postal reply coupons in circulation was a fraction of the number necessary for the profits Ponzi was claiming. The district attorney suggested, and Ponzi agreed, to stop accepting new investors until an auditor is brought in to see that everything’s kosher.

British Prime Minister David Lloyd George will ban Archbishop Daniel Mannix of Melbourne from England (and definitely from Ireland), because of his speeches advocating Irish and indeed Australian independence.

Police and firemen prevent a lynching in... New York City, stopping a mob attacking a driver who’d run over someone.

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