Outside the Casino

As hiring picks up for Wall Streeters, Main Street and its millions of unemployed are still hurting, and some are in desperate straits.

Bob herbert paints too cheerful a picture. The pain has just begun and there is no cure. "Wall street" is living on refugee money that has come here from the rest of the world for safety. The big banks are buying treasuries with stimulus funds. the mortgage servisers are refusing to foreclose because that would put a real loss on their books. The party on Wall will be a very short one. The prize has been cancelled.