This too shall pass,” King Solomon’s advisers told him to engrave on a ring, and refer to it whenever he felt depressed. Or so the legend goes.

Not a bad idea for bankers beset by still more dodgy paper to write off, for shareholders at loss-making Lehman Bros. and ailing Morgan Stanley (first-quarter earnings down 42 percent year-on-year), and for homeowners as they watch the equity in their homes evaporate, or disappear. Some of our current crises will indeed pass.