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It flirted with us all week by rising above and finishing below, but finally The Dow Jones Industrial Average has closed a day of trading above 13,000, a point significant because the Dow was last at that level before the recession, in May 2008. Financial reporters are already applauding the news as a good sign, even while admitting it's a momentous occasion only because, like a Hallmark holiday, we've chosen it as such. As one analyst somewhat tellingly admits to The New York Times, “Thirteen thousand is not so very important technically as it is emotionally, simply because it is not 12,000 ... It is on the way to 14,000. It is kind of a landmark on the way.”

Off to the drug store to buy a greeting card marking the occasion!

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