Market Watch: Lessons from a nation with little faith in the market

The question was so simple it startled me: “Why do you take the chance?”

I was speaking to a group of journalists at a program presented by the Foundation for Effective Government here this week, discussing risk, investments and the workings of the market, when someone wanted an explanation for why anyone in America — but specifically me — puts my money into stocks. 

What had become eminently clear was that they — the journalists, and to a much greater extent the people in Ukraine (at least everyone I talked with, from cab driver to hotel clerk to tour guide, shopkeeper and more) — do not take that chance.