[haroldp]

It may or may not have income to cover its obligations, but it's still a "ponzi scheme"[1] in the sense that I will not get out the money I put in. Rather, it counts on new "investors" to meet it's obligations to me. The big threat to such a scheme is fluctuations in the investment stream - for example, people not supplying enough money (as in a recession) or fluctuations in the pool size (as in baby booms). It's a very dangerous scheme and shouldn't be counted on for what is essentially investment.

To say that it has a "massive trust fund" is like me saying I am rich because I have a cookie jar full of IOUs that I wrote to myself on top of my fridge.

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ponzi_scheme