Barry Eichengreen has some penetrating questions.

We now know that much of what we thought was true was not. As a result we are now in for an economic and financial downturn that will rival the Great Depression before it is over.

The question is how we could have been so misguided. The problem is not so much the poverty of the underlying theory as with selective reading of it -- a selective reading shaped by the social milieu.

Where were the intellectual agenda setters when the crisis was building? Why did they fail to see this train wreck coming? More than that, why did they consort actively with the financial sector in setting the stage for the collapse?

From the archive:

Freelance journalist Karen Abbott's vibrant first book probes the titillating milieu of the posh, world-famous Everleigh Club brothel that operated from 1900 to 1911 on Chicago's Near South Side. While lesser whorehouses specialized in deflowering virgins, beatings and bondage, the Everleighs spoiled their whores with couture gowns, gourmet meals and extraordinary salaries.

Recently, Gretchen Morgenson, on Tim Geithner:

The New York Fed is, by custom and design, clubby and opaque.

Geithner ate lunch with senior executives from Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley at the Four Seasons restaurant or in their corporate dining rooms. He attended casual dinners at the homes of executives like Jamie Dimon.

Here's another worthwhile Q&A:

Lisa: Uh, are you sure that's safe?

Kearny: Well it ain't gettin' any safer.

And another Q&A, this one from Jane Smiley's review of "Intercourse":

Jack: Is it erotic?

Jane: Not at all, really. In fact, most of the time it's anti-erotic. It's about the things you were thinking about when you should have been paying attention.

A pair of final thoughts:

We're all losers now. There's no pleasure to it.

Remember: There's no medicine for regret.