What happens if we can't trust anyone?

A very rich, very well-respected man killed himself today, another of the victims in Bernard Madoff's $50 billion Ponzi scheme that has victimized some of the wealthiest, most influential people in the world.

Thierry Magon de La Villehuchet, whose family name is among those listed on the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, apparently opened his veins with a box cutter and took sleeping pills in his office. He didn't leave a note, but the word is that his investment decisions that put his clients into Madoff's scheme will result in a 10-figure loss.

I don't know why he killed himself, whether it was because he was ruined financially and would no longer be rich or that he felt a sense of dishonor over what his decisions had cost his clients, among whom are Liliane Bettencourt, the world's wealthiest woman.

One of the hardest hit investors in Madoff's scheme is hedge fund Fairfield Greenwich Group, which reportedly lost $7.5 billion. FGG is being sued for failing to protect its investors.

Now $50 billion seems like a lot of money, and I'm sure that if you or I squandered $50 billion, we probably would lose sleep over it. But in the overall scheme of things -- mostly meaning numbers so large they're beyond our comprehension -- it's a drop in the proverbial bucket.

Really. A recent study by Oliver Wyman, the management-consulting firm that’s part of Marsh & McLennan, total wealth held by the world’s financial millionaires is $50 trillion.

That's right, with a "t," and those are just the millionaires. So even if $50 billion with a "b" has vanished from their accounts, that's one-tenth of one percent of their wealth. It means that of every million these guys have, they lost $1,000.

Of course that's ridiculous. A lot of really rich people didn't have any money invested with Madoff, so a lot of people who couldn't afford to lose money probably lost some through their 401(k) accounts or other investments.

That's not the biggest problem here, though.

The biggest problem is that the last 30 years of Reagans, Bushes and Clintons have cost us so much of our regulatory safety net that an awful lot of Americans have to be wondering where -- if anywhere -- they can put their money and feel safe about it.

I was invested relatively conservatively in my 401(k), but I've lost almost a third of its value this year. And that's with a reputable company.

Our economy is tanking, but half the stories about the money the Bush Administration is using to bail out the financial sector are about how much of it is going to year-end bonuses and other perks for executives. There's little or no federal oversight of the bailout; Bush has so hollowed out the federal government that it barely works anymore.

I don't know what's going to happen if people completely lose faith, if they start putting their money into their mattresses instead of their retirement accounts. There really is still a chance that our entire economy could implode.

I'll tell you what would really hurt. If Madoff winds up with a short sentence in some country-club jail and still gets to keep some of the money he stole, we are going to see riots in the streets.

Too bad he didn't have the decency to kill himself.