Dear Book Doctor,
I’ve tried really hard but I just can’t understand what this financial crisis is about. Can you help?
DS, New Jersey

“Toxic assets” may sound like something from a cold war thriller but I’m not sure you’ve come to the right columnist. However, if those bankers had spent more time reading and less time polishing their pots of gold, the markets might indeed be in better shape. For the moneymakers ignored a great lesson of literature – that an unresolved, seemingly unimportant problem will always return to haunt its creators.