Beware of Geeks Bearing Gifts

Though most agree that this Christmas will be a little more merry than last year, we're not out of the woods yet. The Dow Jones Industrial Average may have rebounded from the depths it plumbed earlier this year, but many remain uneasy about the prospects for 2010. Cautious optimism is definitely the watch-word, with the emphasis very much on cautious.

For example, salary freezes in some areas may be over... eventually. Dow Jones chief executive Les Hinton, who used the title of this column at the