Bernie Madoff guaranteed his investment customers an eight percent return, every year.
It sounded too good to be true, and it certainly was.
Madoff's story is one of several in Maria Konnikova's book The Confidence Game, which points out how often people fall for cons, even after similar cons have been seen many times.
There's a blend of psychology, theater, and persuasion at work, and the book works to pull apart the ingredients. This is our second crack at the lessons in the book, just out in paperback.
