A Devil's Brew

We are supposed to sneer in response to sneer at how the mighty have fallen when we read the following headline:

Madoff shares prison with mobster, lawsuit reveals | Business | guardian.co.uk

The disgraced Wall Street fund manager Bernard Madoff has swapped a cocaine-fuelled life of luxury for a prison regime in which he eats pizza cooked by a child molester and shares a prison cell with a 21-year-old drug offender, according to court documents.

Madoff, 71, spends time with a Brooklyn-born mobster, Carmine 'the Snake' Persico, and the former US navy analyst Jonathan Pollard, convicted of spying for Israel in the 1980s.

But consider the technical expertise these fellows are exchanging with each other. Perhaps these particular individuals will never emerge from prison, but they remain in contact with associates on the outside--Associates who can deploy this new expertise.