Moisés Naím / The Washington Post

One of the many surprises of the past decade was how often a company, an industry, a country or even an entire region admired by experts, applauded by journalists and coveted by investors eventually ended up crashing. Enron, legions of dot-coms, Mexico and East Asia's miraculous "tiger" economies all went from financial superstardom to ruin. The crash always happened in the blink of an eye, and its shock waves inevitably hurt innocent bystanders.