Landings

I hope Barack Obama will be as steady-handed and lucky with the US economy as Capt. Sullenberger was yesterday as he carefully ditched his US Airways flight into the Hudson River after both engines lost power.

Thanks to multiple bird strikes - the collapse of the housing bubble, the credit freeze it precipitated, and two ongoing wars (do I need to say that wars cost a lot of money?) the economy's engines have choked. Inflation in 2008 was 0.1%, with the last three months of dropping consumer prices figured in. Usually, annual inflation is about 30 times greater - 3%.

Congress is mulling over a landing package of 825 billion dollars. Even if we land just right, without breaking off our wings or turning over in the water, it's likely that many of us will have to stand with freezing water up to our waists for a while, anyway.

The key to yesterday's rescue, and perhaps to the longer economic one will be not only the skill and luck of our pilot, but the fast arrival of ferries and rescue teams - a collective team effort - to make sure that not one person is lost beneath the freezing waves.