The calendar‘s last page lies our primary question: is hope ever possible? Each December we surmise and make plans. We ask: Will 2005 be a dismal year? Will growth exceed 5 percent? Will there be new acts of terror?

Statistics and astrology provide responses ready with possible faults. Each prognosis is a Delphic oracle. Yet we enter each New Year (with a thrilling party, paper trumpets blaring on the streets, or a lone prayer in a cramped