Who has the money?

I don't know who has the money, and I wonder if anyone does! I certainly don't have it--the money or the data or any analysis of where it went or how to get it back.

The telephone rings off the hook with requests for donations, the mailbox gets overcrowded with appeals, and the news gets grimer.

The Boston Globe had an article this week about how the Christmas tree industry is fearful that folks will give up wreaths, tinsel and yes, the tree.

Citicorp. purportedly will reduce its cadre of employees by a whopping 23,000.

Unemployment numbers are rising and foreclosures are increasing.

In my lifetime I've said on several occasions, "I never thought this would happen ..." but it did.

I never thought we'd have another war like Vietnam. I never thought I'd reach the ripe age of a grandmother. I never thought I'd see a deep recession that is beginning to sound and feel like a depression of economics.

And I want a Christmas tree.