“Margaret,” said Sam, my next-door neighbour, as I was out sweeping autumn leaves off the sidewalk. “You should be careful about letting people see you with that broom!”

“Why is that, Sam?” I asked.

“Don’t you know they call you the Wicked Witch of the Annex?” said Sam.

After wondering whether I should afflict Sam with scabies or a bumper crop of warts, I reflected on my witchy image.

In the fall of 2008, just as the financial meltdown hit the globe, I came out with a book called Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth. People started looking at me in a funny way, as if I’d known something in advance that other people didn’t know — or, worse, as if I’d somehow caused the whole mess myself. Then they began asking me what would happen next. Whose fault was this boiling cauldron of negative indicators, anyway? Why did it happen, and why wasn’t anyone minding the shop? Where could they pick up some tips for the stock market? Surely I could look into my crystal ball and tell them the answers.

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