May 31

I've always liked this day. First, my brother's birthday--and believe me, he's had a lot of them to remind me. Second, a signal to the start of summer. Some even contend May 31 is the true birthday for baseball, since the Philadelphia Athletics were formally founded on this date in 1859 to play a game then called 'town ball'--20 years before Abner Doubleday 'invented' the game. Personally, I can't comment one way or the other. But you could ask my brother--I think he was there.
At any rate, May 31 should also have a special meaning this year. It may even be an historic watershed. Because on May 31, 2007, two seemingly incompatible events did, indeed, occur. Word came from the Associated Press that in the first quarter of the year, our economy almost tanked. In the sense that economic growth, as such, was reported at an almost-invisible 0.6 percent in the United States. Former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan says there's a one-in-three chance that we'll actually slide into a recession this year. This is not good.
And on this same morning, the New York Stock Exchange, the Grand Arbiter of all things economic, opened at the highest point in its history.
Think about that--we're about to go under, and everyone is partying on the top deck. Welcome to the Titanic Economy.
Do you think that maybe--just maybe--we've reached the point where the wealthy may have taken a piece of the pie too big for even their swollen jowls?

diderot