So, does this mean we can officially retire the word “hysteria?” Writers from the New York Times decided last weekend to add to the already lengthy list of reasons for the economic collapse — you know, greed, deregulation, mendacity - and came up with … hormones?

If a research paper published earlier this year is correct, traders have become prisoners of their endocrine systems — testosterone, the elixir of male aggressiveness, during a bull market; cortisol, a steroid that helps the body deal with stress, when the bears take over.

The study suggests that raging hormones might explain why the men who rule the global markets send them rocketing up when they’re on a roll, and swooping down when they get scared, exhibiting judgment that can remind you of the guys in an Adam Sandler movie.

Iceland tapped two women to run banks nationalized during their credit crisis (I really hope one of them was Bjork), a strategy endorsed by the author of the study. Apparently eunuchs are pretty hard to come by. At least outside the halls of Congress.

Women, Dr. Coates explained, have only about 10 percent of the testosterone men have; their judgment is not bollixed by it. He said he also suspected that women were less likely to produce excess cortisol. So he advised getting “more women and older men on trading floors.”

The study focused on stock traders, but it might be applicable to other industries prone to boom-and-bust cycles. Industries such as, say, gaming.

While the Times punctures myths about gender and hormones, the R-J does the same, albeit not explicitly, with the sexes and math mastery. Here’s what Harrah’s CEO Gary Loveman had to say at a recent gaming expo:

“II think the industry is going to have to get accustomed to the notion that not every project is a good project — and $1 billion is a lot of money, after all.”

Yes, Mr. Loveman, a billion dollars is a lot of money. Perhaps a dose of this Depo-Provera will help you see that balance sheet a little more clearly.