Whither will go capitalism?  In chapter nineteen of the admittedly enigmatic book of Revelation, the writer, the apostle John, observes the destruction of a great city, Babylon, as it suffers judgment for the "immorality," as the text puts it, it has systematically cultivated and perpetrated across the planet.
     And what is the nature of Babylon's immorality?  It seems that its immorality is more than its complicity in encouraging sexual aberrance and lewd behavior.  Rather, it seems that Babylon's sin was to serve as a center and bastion of economic and financial greed, that is has systematically and willingly corroborated with the kings (rulers) of the earth to pursue lives focused exclusively on economic gain, usually at the expense of those too weak or powerless to mitigate it.
     Although the Babylon presented in the text could be a literal and physical city, it is more likely a metaphor for all that is wrong with economic systems that, unchecked, reduce themselves to greed and unconsidered gain.  Although capitalism has done much for the world, it also carries tremendous potential for corruption.  When we consider the financial chicanery and insider trading of America's Wall Street, the various economic scandals erupting in the ruling classes of China, the hacking controversies in Great Britain, governmental abuse in Russia, and the many other instances of people illegally manipulating the global markets for their, and only their, gain (not to mention the international drug trade, which works on supply and demand as much as anything else), we can conclude that perhaps the vision of Revelation rings true.  Left to its own devices and populated by selfish people, capitalism will indeed run amok, driving the rulers, economic and political, of the earth to engage in acts of immorality, acts of economic injustice that drag everyone, big and little, into a morass of social and cultural decadence--in every way--from which escape has proven, historically speaking, difficult.
     What to do?  We always take time to consider and remember why we are pursuing gain in the marketplace.  Is it for us?  Or is it for the world?  Do we do it legally?  Or do we do whatever we can do, absolute morality aside, to make a profit?
     As John records the vision, "Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great!"