All digital transitions have had losers, some of whom we may care about more than others. Musicians seem to have a raw deal in the streaming age, receiving fractions of pennies for streams when they used to get dollars for the sales of physical media. Countless regional newspapers went out of business in the move to the web and the disappearance of lucrative classified advertising. The question before society, with even a partial transition to digital books, is: Do we want libraries to be the losers?

If private-equity firms cannot be socially responsible stewards of capital, then Congress will need to act. One possible reform would involve fully taxing the advisory and other fees that private-equity investors extract from the companies they own. Another potential reform would impose restrictions on dividends paid out in the two years following a buyout. Since the current system allows private-equity firms to reap much of the positive gains from successful acquisitions, they could also be required to bear some of the liability for a company’s debt when the buyout ends in bankruptcy.

Some Chinese media outlets have unfortunately fallen in the latter group. Guangzhou-based 21st Century Business Herald has become the second such victim in months to be mercilessly duped by the “mysterious Western art of satire”. The newspaper, one of China’s leading business newspapers, was fooled after it reported on the the Currant's Krugman story, on Sunday, on Chinese social media platform Weibo, with the headline (in Chinese): “Krugman, Nobel laureate, files for personal bankruptcy”.