Creative Creation

November 10, 2008

“Shell-shocked businesses and consumers won’t recover rapidly from the trauma of recent months, especially as we now cope with recession,” Steve Forbes wrote the last time the world was falling apart. How to shore things up? He made a number of practical suggestions, such as thawing out credit markets and keeping the dollar strong. The futurist George Gilder sounded a more philosophical note: “The real source of all growth is human ingenuity and entrepreneurship, which often thrive in the worst of times.” Gilder was right. Those two pillars of capitalism provided the foundation for the bull market that would soon begin and run longer than any in history.

SOURCES: THE GARDEN INTRIGUE, BY LAUREN WILLIG; THE CASE BOOK OF SHERLOCK HOLMES, BY ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE; FOUR KINGS, BY M.D. ELSTER; CRIME AND PUNISHMENT, BY FYODOR DOSTOEVSKY; THE MYSTERIOUS AFFAIR AT STYLES, BY AGATHA CHRISTIE; ASSASSIN’S CREED, BY OLIVER BOWDEN; ANGELA’S ASHES, BY FRANK MCCOURT; THE MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE, BY EDGAR ALLAN POE.