A box of letters traced back to the Street of Eternal Happiness reveals one family's struggle after the Mao revolution. The husband was jailed for practicing capitalism. His wife was left behind to take care of their seven children.

In the midst of the U.S. financial crisis, the economist Luigi Zingales became known for hyping a "managed bankruptcy" for the big banks. That way the banks' private investors, creditors and executives would bear most of the costs of their bad investments.

We talked to economist Daniel Altman about his latest book "Outrageous Fortunes," where he discusses the trends that he thinks will shape the…