Joy of joys

There's something rather scary about the pictures of people, most of them women, poised at dawn and glowing transcendentally, ready to burst into WalMarts and other stores the day after Thanksgiving. What is so exciting, so fulfilling about dashing out like droids to do the bidding of Bentonville? And yet, there they are, smiles etched on their faces, pushing and shoving each other gently to go out and blow their hard-earned dollars on mind-numbing ephemera. If Wall Street could take a cue from Madison Avenue and develop an asset-accumulating product that elicits some of the excitement as these vapid cashflow dissipators, we'd be in much better shape.