Many of those about to be vaporized did not grasp the fragility of the "prosperity" they assumed was both solid and permanent. Business-cycle recessions are not just inevitable, they are necessary to flush bad debt and marginal investments/projects from the system. The next recession--which I suggested yesterday has just begun--will be more than a business-cycle downturn; it will be a devastating meteor storm that destroys huge chunks of the economy while leaving other sectors virtually untouched.