‘Grapes of Wrath’ a Simple Answer to a Complex Issue

In times of crisis, few people have patience for complexity and ambiguity. When the economy fails -- as it did spectacularly in 1929, and almost did in 2008 -- we want to know who to blame and who to punish.

Over the last few years, some on the left have found their villains on Wall Street. On the right, the Tea Party has preferred to blame government, seeing the solution to every problem in less spending, less government power and a return to constitutional limitations.