Here is the paradox of markets: they are bigger, more liquid and more lucrative than ever but mistakes by a handful of companies send shock waves around the world. All created by complex financial innovation and new fangled forms of money like derivatives. There's a lot of benefits from it. Risk is better allocated and people and companies have access to capital that they didn't have before.

But it comes at a price.

I discuss the issues and how we got into this mess in my column here.