Editorial: Is Bush rearranging chairs on Titanic?

Friday, Dec. 6, 2002 | 4:01 a.m.

Forty thousand Americans lost their jobs last month, pushing unemployment to 6 percent, the highest it's been in nearly nine years. The federal surplus of the latter years of President Bill Clinton's administration has turned into a deficit approaching $160 billion. The "trickle down" economic theory, resurgent under President Bush's watch, is working -- but only in the sense that many state, county and city budgets are also battling deficits.

Worried that a languid economy might ruin his chances for a second term -- a fate that befell his father -- President Bush on Friday gave the boot to Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill and economic adviser Larry Lindsey. The dismissals, coming on the heels of the resignation of Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Harvey Pitt, could be positive if they signal a change in economic policy. Without that, it doesn't much matter who signs our currency or bends the president's ear.