But Wall Street people are in fact very smart; they're funny, they're not company men who work their way up the chain.

Outrageous fiscal mendacity is neither historically normal nor bipartisan. It’s a modern Republican thing.

Coming up with a good idea, with an insight into the way the world works that is really new and that you really believe in, is a deeply satisfying experience.

Unsustainable situations usually go on longer than most economists think possible. But they always end, and when they do, it's often painful.

Surely I'm not the only person to ask the obvious question: How different, really, is Mr. Madoff's tale from the story of the investment industry as a whole?

In short, what the living wage is really about is not living standards, or even economics, but morality. Its advocates are basically opposed to the idea that wages are a market price-determined by supply and demand, the same as the price of apples or coal. And it is for that reason, rather than the practical details, that the broader political movement of which the demand for a living wage is the leading edge is ultimately doomed to failure: For the amorality of the market economy is part of its essence, and cannot be legislated away.

It's a funny thing, by the way, how people who love free markets are also quite sure that they know that investors are being irrational.