If true, Dominique Strauss-Kahns actions in a $3,000 Manhattan hotel suite are despicable and tragic. More lurid details will tumble out soon enough. It will be a fitting moment for our times: The IMF on TMZ.

Just weeks ago, a group of Journal editors met with one of Europes most powerful men. He was asked about a potential downgrade of Americas credit rating, and he delivered his surprising answer. Slowly, he said, the Wests institutions were losing their authority. Lose that authority, he said, and you lose order.

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