Financial innovation has added real value to the economy and combined with the explosion of computing power, it is conceivable that the over time the combination would add a few thousands points to the Dow Jones Industrial Average.

Almost certainly more than 2,000, perhaps as much as 4,000 0r 5,000 but 9,000? They Say Nothing points out the obvious that the Dow was at 1,000 in 1980 and 10,000 in 2,000. It took 20 of the country's most prosperous years to rise from 200 to 1,000 but that rise was nothing in comparison.

Does anyone know what accounts for this dramatic rise? Is today's 8,500 still too high? What do we base our value system on now? This crisis seems like the best chance we are going to have to step back and examine our system yet we seem to sticking our heads back into the sand as quickly as we can.