Grand disillusion follows epic illusion and delusion. Things may fall apart next week, next month, or next year, but they will fall apart, as they did in 2000 and 2007. This crash will be the most severe, an economic and financial black hole. Heavily indebted governments and central banks loaded with dodgy assets (including sovereign debt) have nothing left in their bags of tricks. To speculate in these markets is to speculate on continued speculation. Watching Europe slide into depression, a weak American recovery falter, and the Chinese “miracle” choke on its own debt, malinvestment, and pollution, perceptive observers sense something very wrong, a fundamental disconnect between economic reality and financial markets. No, you can’t fool all the people all the time, and like a snowflake that triggers an avalanche, the day will arrive when one more investor sees behind the curtain, says “sell” instead of “buy,” and opens the floodgates―le déluge.