As a financier, he was a little too imaginative: His complex pyramid of holding companies collapsed in the Depression, even as the underlying electric operations remained financially robust.

FORBES: American Pyramids

To see how this works, picture a pyramid at the top of which sits a private holding company owned by the patriarch and his family.

ECONOMIST: A survey of Asian business

Hours after the announcement, police closed 59 offices of DMG Grupo Holding, which evolved from a simple pyramid into a sophisticated investment scheme with a claimed 200, 000 clients.

ECONOMIST: Colombia

With light rain as my only company, I walked through Paris until I reached the famous pyramid, splashed with water nymphs in the form of diamond-coloured drops, surrounded by Japanese tourists holding candy-coloured umbrellas.

BBC: The bloom of cancer