Days after the space shuttle disintegrated over Texas, anti-aircraft batteries were deployed around Washington D.C. An orange terror alert pushed the Dow below 8,000 and further crippled a sagging dollar.

We find ourselves between Iraq and a hard place, and only the Brits are standing up as our true allies. Fearing an attack by Saddam Hussein, Turkey invoked article 4 of NATO’s mutual defense treaty only to be vetoed by France and Germany. The Saudis are mulling the expulsion of American forces. President Bush was even waylaid by Alan Greenspan who denounced the White House stimulus package. The Fed chairman said tax cuts would leave a wake of massive deficits and rising mortgage rates. Though the Fed is out of ammo to prime the economy, the Bank of England cut interest rates to 50-year lows. Maybe that Falklands thing wasn’t such a bad idea after all.