Vinegar in your morning cup of coffee

When I was first learning to write essays, our teacher stressed the importance of grabbing your readers' attention early on in your work, like a compelling "lead" to a news story. Consider columnist Jessie Eisinger's recent piece in the latest edition of Portfolio magazine in which his very first sentence will punish the reader harboring any sense of financial security...

"The worst Wall Street turmoil in a generation is going to wipe every other issue off the table for the next president."

Be warned, it gets scarier. Mr. Eisinger predicts calamity and he put it simply:

"There will be blood."

Common sense dictates that one can only cop a dangerously free ride for so long. At the end of that ride there is an inexorable crash that brings great pain to the free-riderers. Unfortunately, there will also be pain felt by those who paid for others' free rides because paid passengers are tethered to the free-riders. 

We will pay for the free-riders' avarice, their lack of discipline, their recklessness.