The Worst of Times

While I do believe it may be a wee bit premature to make this kind of judgment, TIME's Andy Serwer is ready to label the first decade of the 21st century the "decade from hell."

"We're still weeks away from the end of '09, but it's not too early to pass judgment," Serwer writes. "Call it the Decade from Hell, or the Reckoning, or the Decade of Broken Dreams, or the Lost Decade. Call it whatever you want — just give thanks that it is nearly over."

I'll grant you, no decade that starts with the Y2K scare, the tedious recounting in Florida and the actual horror of September 11 and ends with the nation in the grip of a cruel recession — with a major hurricane and two stock market crashes thrown into the mix — will be remembered with much fondness.

Perhaps closing the book on this decade may help us break out of this funk we've been in for the last two years. Maybe it will give us the psychological boost we need.

Probably not — but we can always hope.