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THE WEATHER didn't stand a snowball's chance in a hot place of dominating people's interest this past week -- not with Pittsburghers buying $2 Powerball tickets at a frantic rate. The jackpot was a record $588 million and at a CoGo's gas station on the South Side Wednesday -- visited by a Post-Gazette reporter -- people were arriving "in droves" for their chance at riches. That scene occurred around the country. As the Associated Press reported, tickets were selling at one point at the rate of nearly 130,000 per minute -- and never mind that people had more chance of being struck by lightning than winning the second-largest jackpot in U.S. history.
IF ONLY the fiscal cliff had snow on it, then it might be more fun to think about going over it, but the mere mention of the term inspires pessimism. Can Congress get its act together and avoid a crisis that would be bad even for lottery winners? Sen. Bob Casey, D. Pa., is trying. As chairman of the Joint Economic Committee, Mr. Casey will moderate a hearing on the issue this week. Witnesses will include Mark M. Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Analytics, and Kevin A. Hassett, senior fellow and director of economic policy at American Enterprise Institute. Good luck with that.
First Published December 2, 2012 12:00 am
