The sheer weight and inertia of American life kept our systems on their feet through 2005, despite a worsening economic climate and some harsh body blows, like the hurricanes that pounded oil and gas production in the Gulf of Mexico. In a way, some perverse law of sociopolitical physics seemed to concentrate all the year’s destructive potential in the devastation of New Orleans, Biloxi and other Gulf Coast towns — while the mighty din of motoring and cheeseburger sales roared on elsewhere without pause - from Cape Cod to Catalina.

First, a little background briefing on where we are at — to use some of the bad grammar now normative in American life — before I make predictions (i.e., guesses) about the year ahead. Read More….