[nerfhammer]

"Ponzi scheme" apparently is just invective that can refer to any sort of market failure now, not necessarily the actual Ponzi scheme type investment fraud such as that which Charles Ponzi carried out.

In this particular example, remember that Charles Ponzi's books were totally fake; outright fraud. That does not characterize other phenomena such as other things like speculative bubbles or simple investment gambles that don't pay off. In contrast the Bernie Madoff scam is a recent example of an actual Ponzi scheme.