Studies of futurity typically privilege licit economies and assume that the lines between licit and illicit institutions are largely clear to the actors involved. But what happens to those actors, and their grip on the future, when such lines blur? This article explores the epistemic crossroads of futurity and legality by focusing on ambiguity. From 1986 to 2009, the Stanford Financial Group reaped billions of dollars selling fraudulent investment products to thousands of Venezuelans. During this span, Venezuelans suffered successive governments’ shambolic currency schemes, bureaucratic dysfunction, judicial corruption, political upheaval, and worsening street crime. As crises became routinized, middle-class Venezuelans faced “normative ambiguity,” a loss of familiar legal and moral certainties, undercutting their sense of futurity. Drawing on 54 interviews with defrauded investors and others linked to the case, this article shows how such ambiguity left investors vulnerable to a fraud that promised to restore that threatened futurity.

对未来的研究通常优先考虑合法经济，并假设合法和非法机构之间的界限对相关参与者来说基本上是清楚的。但是，当这些界限变得模糊时，这些演员会怎样，以及他们对未来的把握呢？本文通过关注模糊性来探索未来性和合法性的认知十字路口。从 1986 年到 2009 年，斯坦福金融集团通过向数千名委内瑞拉人出售欺诈性投资产品获利数十亿美元。在此期间，委内瑞拉人经历了历届政府混乱的货币计划、官僚机构的功能失调、司法腐败、政治动荡和日益严重的街头犯罪。随着危机变得习以为常，委内瑞拉中产阶级面临着“规范性模糊”，即熟悉的法律和道德确定性的丧失，削弱了他们的未来感。