Dec 6, 2019 | Economics / Financial, False Profits, Pyramid Scheme Politics
(December, 2019) The fortunes of investors in the $20 Billion “multi-level marketing” sector of Wall Street hang, by an almost invisible thread, on law enforcement policy of the FTC. Following the Herbalife (HLF) prosecution in mid-2016, two more MLMs,...
Oct 24, 2019 | Economics / Financial, News
At least 12 million Americans that had been classified and counted as “direct sellers,” aka MLM, officially disappeared from the rolls. They stopped pursuing or even holding out hope for the legendary “unlimited” income. Legally, they are still contractors under...
Jul 20, 2019 | Economics / Financial, False Profits
In my files is an unpublished article written about five years ago. I described the surreal experience of constantly encountering or personally overhearing MLM recruiting soliictions, being personally told tragic and dramatic MLM stories by all sorts of people, and...
Jun 14, 2019 | Economics / Financial, False Profits, MLM, News
It is often said that recognizing “pyramid schemes” is difficult, complex, and confusing. Over the years that I studied “multi-level marketing”, I came to realize that the challenge of recognizing pyramid schemes is not complexity or disguise; it is political...
May 30, 2019 | Economics / Financial, False Profits, Legalities and Laws, Pyramid Scheme Politics
The big story about the MLM, Advocare, dropping out of MLM and adopting a “single-level” system (actual direct selling) supposedly as a result of “confidential talks” with the FTC is highly suspicious on its face. At its website, Advocare states: On May 17, AdvoCare...
Apr 13, 2019 | Economics / Financial, False Profits, Individual / Social Impact, PSA in the Media
News and feature articles on “multi-level marketing” are now a distinct genre in the media. I should know. I am frequently interviewed for them. I and several colleagues play a small (about two sentences usually) but essential part in the MLM-genre....