Last November, Kathy Sloane was in the Four Seasons Restaurant for the French-American Foundation’s annual gala, wearing a baby-blue ball gown so vast that its train got stepped on the minute she walked in. A tuxedoed Rothschild heir was speaking about the economy from a podium: “We will come up,” he said, “more alive than dead!”
“I love that optimism,” Ms. Sloane said with a nod. There were five rows of pearls around her neck....
