By Nat Weinstein

You load sixteen tons, and what do you get?

Another day older and deeper in debt.

Saint Peter, don’t you call me, ‘cause I can’t go;

I owe my soul to the company store.1

I was struck by the number of unusually pessimistic reports on the deplorable state of the American and world capitalist economy in the July 20 New York Times. But in the days following, the bad news only got worse.