Vital Signs

You go to the doctor and his nurse takes you temperature and blood pressure. And really, you have to be pretty sick for these to be out of line.

But when we look at our economy, what do we see? A Dow that has lost 20% of the value during the Bush years. Wages that are unchanged, in adjusted dollars, from the early 70s. Income inequality resembling South America more than France or Germany. An extra $3 trillion on the national debt. 47 million without health insurance. Gas prices that have tripled in the past seven years.

And you know something is happening here, but you don't know what it is, do you, Mr. Jones?

This isn't an economy going for an annual check-up. This is an economy discovered on the point of death with the Keystone Kops ready to do CPR.