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India could be the next target

Fear and loathing are on the rise in the United States. Right now the emotions are focused on AIG and Bernie Madoff—deserving targets for populist ire. But mob passions can’t be controlled, so there are huge risks to the United States and the world if the mob and its emotions start to rule. The greatest dangers are that the government won’t be able to rescue industries and institutions that should be rescued to keep the economy from totally tanking, and that protectionism will take hold both in the US and worldwide.

Wall Street's Economic Crimes

The financiers at AIG were awarded millions in bonuses because their contracts were based on the transactions they completed, not the consequences of those transactions. A 32-year-old mortgage broker told me: "I figured my job was to get the transaction done…Whatever came after the transaction—that was on him, not me." A long list of business executives have reaped sumptuous rewards even though they fractured the world's economy, destroyed trillions of dollars in value, and disfigured millions of lives.