This is still the year of the Tiger, and I wonder if some of what's happening around the world would have been predicted according to the trends expected in the lunar year. Hindsight is delightfully useful in these sorts of things. Soothsayers forewarned that it would be turbent for global economies and the Tiger is the steward of things chthonic, elemental and buried. The same soothsayers urged investment in gold and other metals, which was not really going out on a limb with that one.
I wonder, however, given that there's all this news that lingers--and it seems no one has the tolerance or the attention span for protracted, drawn-out hearings or middling suspense any more, if Tiger can be blamed for that too. The network news cycle does not even have the stamina for economic collapse day in and day out and soon turns its gaze on other things--but it seems like the disruptions of air traffic from the volcano in Iceland, a series of earthquakes, and now the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico are not flagging. 
Of course, few stories end really once their notoriety runs out, and most people tend to forget about the recovery process, missed opportunities for revenue-generating, or environmental impact right away, despite hearteninged attempts to the contrary. I wonder what else the year of the Tiger has in store, Golems that awake and slither from the underground. Maybe the big lesson of the times, is not to be complacent about one's surroundings
