Michael Lewis: One of the distinctive traits about Iceland’s disaster, and Wall Street’s, is how little women had to do with it. There are plenty of women, but this is a men’s history. When you borrow a lot of money to create a false prosperity, you import the future into the present. It isn’t the actual future so much as some grotesque silicon version of it. Leverage buys you a glimpse of a prosperity you haven’t really earned. The striking thing about the future the Icelandic male briefly imported was how much it resembled the past that he celebrates. I’m betting now they’ve seen their false future the Icelandic female will have a great deal more to say about the actual one.
From the archive: The sheer amount of sewing done by gentlewomen in those days sometimes takes us moderns aback, but it would probably generally be a mistake to view it either as merely constant joyless toiling, or as young ladies turning out highly embroidered ornamental knicknacks to show off their elegant but meaningless accomplishments.
From a year ago, Barry Ritholtz: You're supposed to raise your standard of living by working harder, being clever, earning more income -- not by using your long-term savings. And now this current generation is pretty much fucked.
From last December, Malcom Gladwell: We should be lowering our standards, because there is no point in raising standards if standards don’t track with what we care about.
Have you seen "Revolutionary Road"? Hopeless emptiness. Now you've said it. Plenty of people are onto the emptiness, but it takes real guts to see the hopelessness.
Wall Street on the Tundra | 
