The contradictions along the line converge near the center, in the city that is arguably the most representative of our new and confusing economy. Wilmington, Del., has become wildly successful as the place where Wall Street and D.C. meet. In 1981, Gov. Pierre S. du Pont, who got to office, in part, because of his family’s old-economy wealth, pushed through the Financial Center Development Act, which led to the state’s new economic engine: regulatory arbitrage. For large financial firms, the state offers uniquely compliant rules (European politicians and economists talk, with horror, of the Delaware effect, which will inevitably lead toward ever-looser regulation). The state’s Web site claims that 63 percent of Fortune 500 companies and half of all publicly traded companies are legally incorporated in Delaware — “because we provide a complete package of incorporation services including modern and flexible corporate laws . . . [and] a business-friendly state government” — and yet only two have their headquarters there: DuPont and, notably, Sallie Mae, technically a private firm but one that owes its existence and profit to government guarantees. The rest of the buildings house tens of thousands of highly paid lawyers, accountants and other specialists engaged in the arcane work of taking advantage of flexible, business-friendly corporate laws.

After all those workers return to the wealthy suburbs at the end of the day, what’s left behind is one of the most dangerous cities in America, its unemployment stuck stubbornly two points above the national average. For those who live there, the future is grim. As the C.E.O. of the global outplacement company Challenger, Gray & Christmas, John Challenger, who might as well have been speaking at any point in the past 30 years, said the week before last that the recent announcement of 1,500 layoffs “may be a harbinger of things to come.”