The Current Discussion: Does the crisis on Wall Street mean that the American style of capitalism is no longer the model for the world?

I have lost very little money for two reasons: One, I didn't have a lot; Two, I never bought shares. So I assume I am among the very few lucky ones whose personal concerns in this crisis are limited.

There is a saying in Hebrew that suckers never die, they are only replaced. The gospel spread from Wall Street to the rest of the world has been very simple: Trust us, the spin economic doctors. We know what we are doing. And sure enough, there have been sufficient herds, numbering in the hundreds of millions around the globe, who believe them. They refuse to learn from history, or from the lessons of 1929 and of all the other black days since then, when stock exchanges collapsed time after time. There has been always enough fresh blood to believe that it won't happen again or it won't happen to us. Suckers never die.

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