The scandal surrounding Bernie Madoff’s bilking of all those nice people is, in the grand scheme of things, not that consequential. But I think it’s unsurprising that it’s sucking up a lot more press attention (for the moment) than the ongoing slow-motion collapse of our economy. After all, the Madoff story has a villain, victims, and is a straightfoward and uncomplicated story of a bad man doing bad things to good people.
On the other hand, the collapse of the economy is horrifically complicated, and almost everyone is complicit both as victim and as agent. Maybe not villain, since it’s not so clear that the financial collapse is that sort of deal. But everyone who actively participated in politics or the economy over the past two decades was complicit to some degree, though of course some more than others. But it’s a story of a complex system grinding to a halt through a bunch of individually rational decisions.
It’s a fascinating phenomenon, but certainly not a TV-ready story.
-Alex Copulsky, Books & Arts Editor
