All We Want for Christmas is a Good Economy

By Marie Cocco, Washington Post Writers Group
Posted on November 13, 2007, Printed on November 13, 2007
http://www.alternet.org/story/67653/

Sometime before the average price of gas topped the $3-a-gallon mark, just as Wall Street was getting jumpy about its year-end bonuses -- the cache is expected to dip by 10 percent this year, down from last year's record haul of $23.9 billion -- an inevitable moment arrived. The economy beat Iraq as the issue of most concern to Americans, according to a Newsweek poll.

It's hard to fret over whether Manhattan financiers will be buying summer estates in the Hamptons next year, or merely renovating that waterfront cottage with so much potential. Still and all, in an economy where for years the greatest rewards have trickled up, it gives me the jitters to think that the rich might suddenly become more like the rest of us: suffering the fallout from the too-often-ignored scandals and the utter neglect of nagging problems that are distinguishing characteristics of American economic policy.