As banks collapse and economies totter, the public mood is angry and confused. Scapegoats are sought. Short selling has been singled out, but you might say the heart of the problem was a chronic short-termism, an obsession with short-term profit (or, in the case of the media, short-term disasters and excitements, or, in the case of politicians, short-term electoral cycles), at the expense of long-term sustainability.

What is the antidote to this? I offer up not a new template for financial regulation (you might not trust it) but two examples of long-term political and artistic vision.