Last week, I made the mistake of buying a sandwich at Starbucks. I was pretty hungry, I happened to be near a Starbucks, and the photograph of their new product looked tantalizing. Let’s just say reality didn’t match promise.

And that, in a nutshell, is what the people of China are experiencing at this very moment. Because their corrupt, venal government has sold them a bill of goods in the form of a (formerly) booming equities market, and the freshly-minted “traders” are finally getting a good look at the bag they’re holding, and they feel just like I did: disappointed.