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...

From a single product offering in 1963, the Islamic financial services industry has grown to an estimated $1.6 trillion in assets. Products must comply with profit and risk-sharing criteria and regulations preventing banks from venturing into activities with high risk and excessive uncertainty....