‘My dear Mr Clennam,’ returned Ferdinand, laughing, ‘have you really such a verdant hope? The next man who has as large a capacity and as genuine a taste for swindling, will succeed as well. Pardon me, but I think you really have no idea how the human bees will swarm to the beating of any old tin kettle; in that fact lies the complete manual of governing them. When they can be got to believe that the kettle is made of the precious metals, in that fact lies the whole power of men like our late lamented.
Ferdinand Barnacle (Little Dorrit, by Charles Dickens)
I remember reading Little Dorrit back in school, but I never thought I’d read it on a personal finance blog.
People really will believe in any old rubbish. I suppose that’s why we have politicians – at least they make the lies sound nice!