No Lipstick on Lehman's Pig

We may not be yet headed toward a world made by hand - to borrow the title, if not the mood of James Kunstler's dark cinematic novel of our post-energy future - but we may be headed toward a New York without its economic engine. Tonight, Lehman Brothers and its 158 years of Wall Street history teeter on the edge of oblivion, with no bail-out on offer from you and me, the humble taxpayer. Merrill Lynch is in talks with Bank of America to save itself. We - that's you and me, dear reader - have guaranteed the mortgage-backed security nest of vipers at Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae in order to "save" that market. Insurance giant AIG edges toward the edge. The dollar's in the crapper, thanks to Republican policy protecting companies who make beau coup bucks by selling American-made on the cheap. And the polls now favor that failed political party and its former opposition leader, now comfy in the arms of both the K Street lobbyists who sold the economy down the river - and the flunky neocons who send other people's children to die in a failed experiment. Yeah, I don't know what the Bush Doctrine is either, except what I've heard on Fox. But when those thousands of six - and yes, seven-figure jobs - leave New York never to return in the lifetimes of those holding the pink slips and carrying cardboard boxes, it means the pork barrel of Federal emergency aid is empty. And there ain't puttin' no lipstick on that pig.