This week as families gather for Thanksgiving, too many will be saying prayers more in desperation than celebration.

The jobs picture is bleak -- and continues to get worse. Now we're told that if nothing is done, unemployment is likely to continue to rise through next year. States and localities, hit by plummeting tax revenues, are gearing up for brutal cuts -- and tax and fee increases. Students demonstrated last week in Berkeley and other California campuses after announcement of a staggering 32 percent increase in tuition over the next year. An estimated 900,000 jobs are about to be lost just from state and local cuts. While Wall Street is planning record bonuses, Main Street hasn't begun to recover. Small businesses still can't get loans. Malls are scarred by empty stores,...