I think Albania is a bit of a special case though. The crisis happened pretty soon after the fall of Communism. The country had not built up any the governmen

I think Albania is a bit of a special case though. The crisis happened pretty soon after the fall of Communism. The country had not built up any the government institutions required to govern the new proto-democracy. As a result the government didn't merely fail to reign in the scams -- they actually encouraged them (presumably some government officials profited, which is why the people revolted). The result in Albania should be seen in the context of other major post-revolutionary histories. It was worse than the transition in, say, Poland but much better than, say, the French Revolution. The fact that the crisis happened to take the form of Ponzi schemes is just one example of the weirdness of history.