No. 1 A new Era Of Volatility

Illustration by Harry Campbell for TIME

If there is a poem for this moment, it is surely W.B. Yeats' dark classic "The Second Coming." Written in 1919, it evokes the darkness and uncertainty of Europe in the aftermath of a horrific war. "Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold," Yeats writes. "Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world/... The best lack all conviction, while the worst/Are full of passionate intensity."

It's hard to imagine a more eloquent description of our own bearish age. The middle class is shrinking, the markets are flailing, U.S. presidential candidates are bickering, and European policymakers are fiddling while Rome (and Athens and...

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