These days, I can hardly open my newsreader without finding yet another story about some company closing its doors or filing for bankruptcy. The latest? Harvey Electronics, which manufacturers status symbol electronics under the Bang & Olufsen name.

Good grief. If fancy-schmancy brand names like that one, favored by those folks capable of living off only the interest from their investments without ever touching the principal, can go belly up, then nothing is safe anymore.

Take my online brokerage, E-Trade, for instance. Shares in the company plunged last month after news of its poor earnings, and analysts quickly pointed out that bankruptcy couldn’t be ruled out. You can’t imagine the speed with which I sold my shares and withdrew our money.

VH duly lectured me on the transaction, claiming that I was too risk adverse, that it’s people like me who contributed to the stock market crash precipitating the Great Depression, and that no doubt someone would bail out E-Trade. He was right on at least one of those counts: Citadel bailed the brokerage out and some analysts feel E-Trade’s stock is one of the best stocks to buy in 2008.

Just as many, however, say that the bailout was a bad business move and that E-Trade is likely to go bankrupt in 2008, and now bankruptcy lawyers are circling the company like shark on chum.

Which is why I’ll most likely make my investment decisions in 2008 by flipping a coin… then promptly depositing that same coin into my piggy bank where at least I know it’ll be there when I need it.

Not that I’ll actually have any places where I want to spend it, mind you. Even venerable Macy’s is undergoing financial distress, closing eight of its stores and laying off nearly 900 jobs. They’re just part of a nasty trend, according to market watchers who point to the 40% jump in bankruptcy filings in the past year. Those same analysts forecast an additional 13% increase in Chapter 11 filings for 2008 from not only companies in the housing industry but also electronics makers, energy miners like coal companies, agriculture firms and makers of durable goods.

In other words, the only people likely to get richer in the New Year (aside from politicians who have the enviable ability to vote for their own pay raise) are bankruptcy lawyers. So for all of those who can’t resist lawyer-bashing, I suggest you switch your aim and start bashing the politicians instead. They’re the ones who can fix the problem, after all.

Not that I’m all that worried, mind you. I’ve been through this before. So have you, if you think about it. Seems to me the last time the economy was this bad we were also talking about war in Iraq and complaining about President Bush paying too little attention to domestic matters. Sure, that was under Bush Senior, but I have little doubt that Dubya is going to be followed by a Democrat in the White House just as his Daddy was before him.

Why?

It’s the economy, stupid.

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