By MIRO
CERNETIG
Saturday, January 4,
2003 – Print Edition, Page A3
NEW YORK -- A baby-sized chemical
protection suit goes for $495. The portable gamma-radiation detectors cost
$149. A personal Evacuchute, to float off a flaming skyscraper (just jump
into the wind), will set you back $1,499. And should you simply want to
flee Manhattan Island when terror strikes, don't be without the two-man,
$45, inflatable dinghy, with oars included.
Those are some of the pricey products on the shelves of Safer America,
New York's new antiterror boutique. It is one-stop shopping for anxious
Americans, who may want to have a 10-day supply of antiradiation
potassium-iodide tablets ($10.95 U.S.) in their kitchen cupboards.
There are many customers.
"I'm looking for a chemical-weapons detector and those antiradiation
pills," says a shopper, a small businessman who holds back his name
because he doesn't want to look "paranoid or scared.
"I don't think we're heading for doomsday or nothing, but I want to be
ready just in case. All my friends, they're thinking the same way."
On the verge of another war, with their economy sputtering along and
the war on terrorism only begun, Americans are displaying qualms about the
future; a rare occurrence in a country where boundless optimism has long
been seen as a birthright.
"It's a sign of the times," said Harvey Kushner, who two months ago
opened up his Safer America store just a few blocks from ground zero,
under the motto "Be safe, be strong." He's no alarmist, and his store
rejects the bomb-shelter mentality of the survivalist cranks usually
associated with shopping for such items as a $149 NBC ("nuclear,
biological, chemical") weapons suit.
Since Sept. 11, 2001, and in the ensuing 16 months, Mr. Kushner
believes increasing numbers of Americans realize they live in a more
uncertain era. By the end of the past century, he opined, every American's
home needed a smoke detector. "In the 21st century, you might need a
radiation detector."
Safer America's boutique may be only one slice of U.S. life. But it
hints at the nervousness and gloom being picked up by other key barometers
of the mood of ordinary Americans, 800,000 of whom saw their unemployment
benefits run out on Dec. 28.
In December, the U.S. consumer-confidence rating fell for the sixth
time in seven months, leaving it near where it was after the attack on New
York and Washington.
That translates in real life to widespread worry, and as a result,
Americans aren't buying: U.S. Christmas sales were the worst in 30 years,
a major blow to a country addicted to consumer spending.
It's even worse on Wall Street. Thanks to misgivings about war with
Iraq and accounting scandals from Enron to Worldcom that sapped investor
confidence, the U.S. stock market's major averages closed out the year
with losses for the third year in a row, the first time this has happened
since the 1939-41 period.
Tens of thousands of jobs have already been lost in New York in the
past few months, and more cuts are expected. Almost everyone expects the
slump on Wall St. and the crisis in confidence, despite short-lived
rallies on some days, to be prolonged.
"Wall Street is mired in its deepest funk since the crash of 1929,"
concludes Fortune magazine, in a major piece wondering whether New York's
investment community can return to boom times.
"Everything that drove the great profit boom of the past decade -- IPO
under-writing, mergers and acquisitions, individual investor activity --
is comatose right now. And no one expects them to come roaring back, even
if markets soon rebound from their three-year-old malaise."
The best overview of late on what Americans are thinking about their
fortunes comes from the Gallup polling organization. It found 51 per cent
of Americans are dissatisfied with the economy, with only 46 per cent
saying they are satisfied. Confidence in the future economy is also taking
a beating. In the summer of 2000, 74 per cent thought the economic
prospects were excellent or good. Today only 24 per cent of Americans rate
the U.S. economy in those favourable terms.
It's troubling news for U.S. President George W. Bush. While he remains
popular, and more than 60 per cent of Americans support his strategy on
Iraq, the level of that popularity has been eroding with each passing
month's news of more hits to the economy, continuing terrorist attacks and
the increasing likelihood that massive military action in Iraq that might
put oil prices through the roof. Yesterday, crude topped $33 (U.S.) a
barrel for the first time since November, 2000.
After the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, when he won Americans
over, Mr. Bush scored an approval rating of 90 per cent, with only 6 per
cent disapproving of his leadership. But that approval rating is now back
down to 61 per cent, with 32 per cent of Americans giving him a thumbs
down.
For Republican strategists, that is getting close to his anemic ratings
before Sept. 11, when 51 per cent liked the way he was doing the job and
39 per cent expressed disappointment.
Whether Bush can boost the economy or not will largely depend on
whether he decides that the United States will invade Iraq.
Whatever happens, though, the folks at Safer America aren't likely to
be fretting about business. Even in a tight, doubt-ridden economy, owner
Mr. Kushner says orders have been ahead of predictions as more and more
Americans, and foreigners who order through the Internet, think owning a
gas mask is a pretty good idea.
He says Safer America stores are planned for other cities: Chicago and
probably Los Angeles. "We'd like to have 200 stores," said Mr. Kushner,
who thinks he might be onto the next GAP, and might be able to eventually
give Wall Street a much-needed boost. "We'd like to take it public." | 
