Even the hardest, coldest, most calculating men of finance are men of faith, men of credit, who believe in ghosts. They move about in a virtual reality where cash - which is itself, relative to the old mercantile system, but a sign - has all but disappeared, replaced by a stream of molecules, by electronic signals that say that certain monies have been paid or lost, grown or diminished, been transferred or advanced, which everyone believes implicitly. Everyone who is involved in banking, the stock market, in buying options and “futures,” in international currency exchange, in commercial transactions of any sort, must simply believe, trust. When the big players and high rollers start to lose confidence (which means faith) in the market, then the market contracts. When faith ceases to circulate in the economic system, then the circle draws tight, market values fall, interests rates soar, and the market, held the whole while in mid-air by faith, “crashes.” Then the big players, big as they are, sink to their knees and start praying like hell.  —John D. Caputo