What happened to the great American IPO dream?
There is a dark but funny one-act play called No Exit by Jean-Paul Sartre, that gloomy, chainsmoking, wall-eyed French existentialist. The play is about three characters trapped in a room from which they cannot escape. No flames, no pitchforks, no brimstone – it turns out the afterlife isn’t the fourth circle of Hell, but a dinner party you can’t leave. Round and round these characters go, each demanding what the others won’t give. In the end, the worst punishment isn’t torture. It’s just being stuck. “Hell,” goes the famous line, “is other people.” Well, mon Dieu, we now have a sequel.
