It's simply being used as a metaphor. Two words that get you to look at X from a particular angle. The function of metaphors has never been to imply complete e

It's simply being used as a metaphor. Two words that get you to look at X from a particular angle. The function of metaphors has never been to imply complete equivalence, obviously. Rather, some aspects of the concept used as a metaphor are shared with aspects of the concept it's being likened to. By invoking the metaphor, those aspects are made salient. http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&id=xpYZoVNzdykC&printsec=frontcover&source=web&ots=2rWrWlT97P&sig=E-OxRm0gYujxFzubknc4kFFvjRc&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=3&ct=result http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&id=xpYZoVNzdykC&... Notions like the "Ponzi economy", I think, are to actual Ponzi schemes what Searle's Chinese Room is to Chinese speakers. Or, to put it another way, the Ponzi economy is simply a grand Ponzi scheme, minus the scheming.