In real life, many of their husbands lost their fortunes, their integrity and their dignity in their love affair with Wall Street.

FORBES: The Social Climber's Handbook: The Murderous State of Womanhood

But Wall Street's most famous Ponzi scheme was, like the present one, no small affair.

WSJ: Pyramid Schemes Are as American as Apple Pie

If his dream was to live in the woods, with a fireplace and a typewriter and sheaves of notes hooked on the wall, almost like a deaf-mute in his dealings with the world, that was his affair.

ECONOMIST: J.D. Salinger