As we head into the holidays at the end of a year that few have enjoyed, we should recall where we were one year ago.

At that point we had a new President, and we had the audacity of hope, but we were staring into the abyss of an economic collapse. People are quick to forget how terrifying the period between September 2008 and February 2009 was.

At that point, things were so scary that there was actual discussion in this capitalist nation of an idea like nationalizing the big banks. The ghost of Leon Trotsky must have been grinning at that one! Well, the banks didn't get taken over by the state, nor were they left to go bankrupt, either.

Instead we got the bank bailouts, the AIG bailout, and a return to some kind of business as usual. Most Americans are hopping mad as a result. The bankers screwed up, we bailed them out with our tax money, and now they are going to charge us interest to borrow our tax money from them — while they got it for free and were able to hand out those much-despised giant bonuses again, the bonuses often going to the same crew that caused the problems in the first place.

It sounds like not much has changed, in that case. The financial industry took over the United States some time ago and is still in charge, whether we like it or not. Both political parties are in agreement on that, and neither will risk the economic status quo to change it.

But if the economy had gone over the edge and into freefall, with huge banks shutting their doors, then today's landscape would have been a lot bleaker. Big banks going down would have pulled down smaller banks, and that process would have bankrupted the FDIC and produced a situation in which no bank anywhere would lend to anyone. That would have shrunk the economy some, alright. We would have real mass unemployment, soup kitchens, and a return to the grimness of the 1930s.

That didn't happen. The banks stayed in business, lending continued, if at an anemic level, the economy suffered, unemployment rose…but so far at least, the worst has been averted.

So, as we turn our attention to Christmas dinners and New Years' celebrations, let's give thanks for that. We might have been contemplating turnip soup for Christmas, we might all be out of work — a whole nation on the breadlines.

Instead, we're carrying on more or less as normal. Turkeys and hams are on their way to our tables, Christmas trees and menorahs have been lit, and though the economy is poor, the state is broke, and no one is predicting a boom next year, we somehow managed to avoid the abyss.

At this point, that's worth raising a glass to celebrate.