What economists fear most is that investor losses will translate to a slowdown, or worse, in consumer spending.
Official estimates of investor loss are now estimated to be around 90 million dollars.
Despite serious investor losses, a staggering increase in national wealth would result.
While considerably higher than the usual $3 million limit on reimbursements, it was unlikely to make up for large investor losses.
Winsor only exacerbated the problem by using his own capital to pay back many investor losses himself.
In 2004, investor losses in the typical suit decreased to $1.7 billion.
For all of last year, investor losses amounted to $5.2 billion on such bonds.
The funds do not share in investor losses - but they reap a large share of the profits.
Estimates of investor losses made by lawyers range from $25 million to $100 million.
A similar study in 1985 detected only $91 million of investor losses in 31 cases.