Mood and the Miracle on the Hudson

Along with the upcoming inauguration of president elect Barack Obama, the Miracle on the Hudson - in which a US Airways jet plane made an emergency landing in the Hudson River late in the day on Thursday, with all 155 on board surviving - is likely to be remembered as among the "good things" that we abided by emotionally during the depths of the 2007-2009 bear market.  

Phenomena like this often serves as cultural markers and, as such, are almost more important in the way that they are remembered than they way they are thought about or considered at the time.  What is tragic in the present often becomes a rallying cry in the future - in the same way that many of our happiest moments at the time were often instances of outrageous recklessness and hedonism given the clarity of hindsight and the distance of time.

It seems to me that people are looking for a reason to feel better and now, we can add to the dawn of a new presidential  a feel-good tale of a heroic pilot and a highly television-friendly tragedy-averted.  It might not be enough to get us up and out of here.  But it will do for a start.