Those who do not know history…

But wait, surely these people do know history.  Marco, a loyal MR reader, writes to me:

Over here in the Netherlands, court proceedings are starting this week on the "biggest speculation fraud ever in the Netherlands", according to a national newspaper that ran a big story about it today. Investors have lost tens of millions of euros in what turned out to be a big pyramid scheme.

Now for the ultimate irony. Any idea what these people were investing in? Tulip bulbs. Really.

Here is one link in Dutch, here is another.  I can’t find anything in English but these articles do seem to reflect Marco’s summary.  I can understand sentences like: "Ook volgens De Greve was er sprake van een piramidefonds," and "November 2006 ging Novacap falliet," if not: "De Greve: „Er is geen spatje bewijs voor dat de groep die Novacap heeft gedaagd, de boel heeft opgelicht. Dat is flauwekul.”