Raise your hand if you don't know someone who has been laid off in the past three months.

Hell, raise your hand if you don't know someone who has been laid off in the past week.

The jobless numbers that just came out (533,000 jobs lost in November alone) are being described as "almost indescribably terrible" by Ian Shepherdson of High Frequency Economics.

True, as David Leonhardt points out in his Economix blog, the vast majority of Americans are still employed. But for how long?

It's clear that the federal government is paralyzed until January. What I want to know now is where are all the hedge-fund guys? Where are all the C.E.O.'s? Where are the people who pocketed tens or hundreds of millions of dollars during the boom?According to this fascinating and disturbing article by V.F. contributing editor Michael Shnayerson, they are feeling their own special brand of pain.


While it's reassuring to think that the airlines may survive the crisis after all, I think it's about time that the people who made a killing during the good times start thinking about what they can do to help out in the bad times. It's all well and good to consume a bit less, but it's going to take more than that to repay society for its unwitting generosity.


Michael Shnayerson on Wall Street after the fall.

Joseph E. Stiglitz on the America's reversal of fortune