American confidence is more than a state of mind; it is a muscle, a westward-ho-ing, atom-splitting, moon-landing muscle, and Osama bin Laden's autumn ambush, designed to break it, seemed only to make it stronger. The markets reopened within a week after Sept. 11, swooned and then revived, and even as the fires still burned downtown and the soldiers headed off to war, more Americans said they believed the country was on the right track back in October than felt that way last week. Is it possible we could do to ourselves what our worst enemies did not manage?
The corporate criminals...