But here's a ray of lukewarm mid-January sunshine to bask in, if only for a few seconds: Yankee hating is in vogue again. In fact, the most smug, arrogant and, yes, successful, franchise in the history of American sports has never been easier to hate.

While the Wall Street dog that has wagged the tail of American finance since New York emerged as the financial capital of the world after World War I goes belly-up, the Yankees are preparing to move into The House That Ruthless Built. The Boss, George Steinbrenner, aging and infirm, might be out of the picture, but his sons have inherited the family trait of spending like drunken sailors.

The front- and back-page headlines in the New York tabloids have told a story of wild contrasts that will be studied by future generations of economists. They went something like this:

Front: "Broke GM Gets Record Bailout." Back: "$180M Score for Teixiera."

Front: "Did Madoff Makeoff With $50B?" Back: "$400M for Yank Free Agents."

I don't know whether Bowie Kuhn made it to Baseball Heaven. Wherever he is, however, the baseball commissioner who spent much of his turbulent term fining, suspending and warning George Steinbrenner must be spinning like a top.

OK, let's give the devil's bosses their due. They actually have lowered their 2009 payroll to date while taking on $423.5 million in long-term salaries to uber-lefthander CC Sabathia ($161 million), Teixiera ($180 million) and righthander A.J. Burnett ($82.5 million). Hey, America's deadbeat banks are not the only write-down experts. GM Brian Cashman is taking so many big salaries off the books - Bobby Abreu, Jason Giambi and Mike Mussina - Hank Steinbrenner says he will bring his 2009 payroll about $80 million under last year's final total of about $209 million. That total assumes that veteran lefthander Andy Pettitte will continue to stonewall Cashman's effort to sign the free agent for much less money.

Yankee Stadium II was designed to be a giant currency printing machine disguised as the original, including the deep power alleys, Monument Row and the gingerbread facades. The austere, old yard lacked the money-extraction venues that have made Citizens Bank Park worthy of my Money Pit nickname. It is fair to ask if the luxury suites of Yankee Stadium II will be funded with bailout money we will take on, so the army of Wall Street deadbeats that has savaged the economy can continue accustomed lifestyle. One where season tickets and luxury-suite perks are as much a part of the business model as auto-industry czars flying to Washington to holler poor-mouth in squadrons of corporate jets.

The 2009 Steinbrenner hanky panky will include an MLB-mandated mockery of the so-called luxury tax. With their 2008 season income swollen like a pregnant anaconda by profits from record attendance and YES Network dough, revenues were estimated at $300 million. That left the Yankees holding a staggering $100 million tax bill. Ah, but MLB gives a huge percent tax break to clubs building new stadiums, a stimulus package, so to speak. According to published reports, the Yankees will be able to write off an estimated $85 million in debt service and stadium operating costs from the 2009 tax. This will not be good news to the Kansas City Royals, Florida Marlins, Tampa Bay Rays and other clubs on Uncle Bud's deadbeat dole.

If the Yankees did, indeed, lose $47.3 million in 2007, according to hardly authoritative Forbes magazine (the "experts" who last year listed Bill Giles as the Phillies CEO), a protracted recession could find the Yankees in the middle of an economic perfect storm.

Ah, but we're talking sums of money here that only the Bernie Madoffs and Warren Buffetts of the world can understand.

The bottom line for Yankee haters since the days of Murderers' Row has been the joy of rooting for them to lose - infrequently as that has happened to a franchise that has harvested 27 World Series rings.

But, yes, it can happen again to a team that paid so much last season to win 89 games in the American League East while finishing a dismal third behind the Rays and Red Sox. Here's one I'll throw out just for fun: It says here that John Smoltz, pitching with a powerhouse Red Sox lineup behind him and with a real closer behind him in Jonathan Papelbon, will win more games than Burnett. A.J. is a big-time power arm when healthy, but the question becomes, "When healthy?" Not too often in his DL-marred career.

The next question: Will Sabathia feel the same "ace pressure" as Johan Santana did last season? The Big Yo was supposed to be a lot better than he was - not that he wasn't good. But for that money, give me 20 wins minimum and a low 2 ERA, thanks.

Meanwhile . . . Unemployment edging toward 10 percent . . . A national debt with too many zeros for even Jack Bauer's gal Chloe to process . . . An auto industry that once led the world on the verge of collapse . . . A smug septuagenarian who allegedly scammed a sum of money $15 billion more than the GDP of Afghanistan . . .

New York Yankees, you owe us a ray of sunshine, a chance to sing "Happy Days are Here Again." *

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