Madoff Case Echoes Rich Lode of Swindler Literature – NYTimes.com:
In the “there’s nothing new under the sun” department, this article points out some of the literary predecessors to the Bernie Madoff financial scandal:
‘You must realize that money making is one thing, religion another, and family life a third,’ Mr. Voysey matter-of-factly tells his son Edward, who is appalled to learn that his father has been operating a pyramid scheme for decades with his clients’ money.
Mr. Voysey — the affably corrupt character in Harley Granville-Barker’s 1905 play ‘The Voysey Inheritance’ — is one of Bernard L. Madoff’s literary predecessors, and his compartmentalized view of the world may suggest how Mr. Madoff, a philanthropist and a pillar of the financial world and Jewish life, enmeshed family and friends in what federal authorities are calling a $50 billion Ponzi scheme.
