Here's a quotation from the most recent collection of Wendell Berry's essays:

"As our economy has been showing us for the past year or so, we have become a nation of fantasists. With a kind of abject credulity, we have come to believe in the power of money alone to bring forth goods, to believe that money itself is a good, to believe that consumption is as vital an economic activity as production. We think that shopping is a patriotic act and a public service. We tolerate fabulous capitalists who think a bet on a debt is an asset." (my emphasis)

"Simple Solutions, Package Deals and a 50-Year Farm Bill"
in What Matters?
Wendell Berry

That last sentence resonates when we look at Wall Street and the casino climate it has grown.