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These tough economic times “appear to be leading to more suicides by rich people,” said Yael Abouhalkah in the _Kansas City Star_ online. Recent cases include German billionaire Adolf
Merckle, Chicago real estate executive Steven Good, and fund manager Thierry Magon de La Villehuchet. “It’s not an upbeat topic," but we should try to understand what losing everything
does to someone with "massive wealth and prestige," because there are more losses to come. Suicide can be seen many ways—“as honorable, cowardly, sad, tragic,” said Michael Lewis
in Bloomberg. But some financial types seem to be under the “strange assumption” that it’s “a form of ‘taking responsibility.’” Well, “there’s no noticeable decline in the sum total of
responsibility in need of taking” when a financier kills himself, and his clients and creditors are no better off. I’d blame cowardice and a skewed idea of what poverty is, said Patrick
Edaburn in _The Moderate Voice_. Take Merckle—he was worth as much as $10 billion last year, and while his apparently-suicide-prompting losses “did appear to be substantial,” he would still
be a millionaire if he lost 99.99 percent of his wealth. Killing yourself over that is “ridiculous.” SUBSCRIBE TO THE WEEK Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus
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Week delivered directly to your inbox. From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox. Mental health experts say
Merckle threw himself in front of a train due to “deep feelings of shame rather than material losses,” said Erik Kirschbaum in Reuters. For Merckle and others on the “lengthening list of
high-profile investors around the world to take their own lives,” losing face and losing honor was worse than losing a fortune. Maybe, but historically, a rise in suicides during financial
crises is more “urban legend” than fact, said Loren Coleman in _The Copycat Effect_. And it’s “highly doubtful” that we’ll see “an increase in actual suicides ‘caused’ by or in the wake of
the Great Crash of 2008.” But “look for a dramatic spike in reporting on every stockbroker and bankrupt CEO who dies by suicide.” A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day
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