Business news for Mon, 24 Dec 2007 & with word lead. 6 news.

The Dow industrials jumped by 98.68 points to 13549.33 in an abbreviated pre-holiday session, as financial stocks advanced on optimism that banks and brokerages can find fresh sources of capital, and investors hoped holiday sales will turn out to be stronger than anticipated.

BOSTON (MarketWatch) -- William Knapp, chief investment strategist for MainStay Investments, says investors should expect the economy to sidestep a recession in 2008, but noted that even if one occurs, "consumers will barely know it happened."

The Republican chairman of the Federal Communications Commission is disputing Democratic assertions that a new rule loosening restrictions on media ownership is full of loopholes and will lead to a wave of mergers and fewer choices for consumers.

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) - Technology stocks up slightly Monday morning with Microsoft Corp. and newcomer NetSuite Inc. gaining more than 1%. The Nasdaq Composite Index , the Morgan Stanley High Tech 35 Index and the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index were up fractionally. The Dow was ahead more than 60 points.

I'll get used to Christmas, if only in my dreams I MARRIED Christmas. No, that isn't my wife's first name, nor did I marry for the holiday the way some people marry for money. Like so many assimilated American Jews, I grew up admiring the lights and the trees and the shopping-mall Santas, but not celebrating the holiday itself. Non-observance of Christmas was a bedrock principle of my equally assimilated parents' religious self-definition. We may have eaten bacon freely and never set foot in a synagogue, but when one of us children whistled "Jingle Bells" or asked to string lights on a tree, we once again were slaves in Egypt. My wife's family, by contrast, celebrates Christmas with a fervour and intensity (and joy, of course) that still amazes me. Over the top of my computer I see a dozen different creches arrayed atop a cabinet. Eight miniature golden reindeer lead a well-stuffed sleigh across the mantle; red bows are tied around everything upright that will hold them; holly branches garland pictures; and red-and-white striped candles are ready to be lit. There is no tree yet; we'll select and cut our own tomorrow from an orchard located in the nearby town of, believe it or not, Bethlehem, Connecticut. ...

Of all the articles on the credit crisis, this is perhaps the most eloquently succinct in explaining how this situation can lead to a spiral that will plunge us into a catastrophic depression that could see unemployment levels skyrocket to levels not seen since the 1930s.