The mood of the country at this point is hard to fully capture. Words like sour, exasperated, infuriated, bewildered, disillusioned, anxious, bitter and vengeful come to mind, but somehow seem pallid and inadequate. Retailers sense another weirdly tepid and morose gift-buying season, most likely a lot worse than last year. The real-estate industry is getting tired of its own happy talk. The investor class is coming to grips with the emerging reality of a double-dip recession, the second dip due pretty soon. Unemployment and the fear of unemployment continue to rise; the official jobless rate in Michigan, not so long ago the crown jewel of America's industrial capacity, is over 15%. Congress is starting to feel the heat in ways they have not felt it in a very long time, and a sense of dreadful worry -- about nothing and everything -- has settled over D.C. like a Scottish fog. Welcome to the New Normal, and enjoy it before it gets any worse.
Thanksgiving is today. We should all be thankful that we have everything we need to solve all these problems. Better get busy.
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