Numerologists are having a field day with two digits - 1 and 9 - that, when arranged in a certain sequence, have foretold the fortunes of America: first there was 9/11, now it's 99:1.
The former entered the American psyche like a bullet a decade ago, sinking so deep into our collective wound that the evocation of its memories - exploding planes and falling glass towers, a fabled city shrouded in soot and dust, crushed bodies and a hole in the ground - spurred two costly wars overseas.
Indeed, some historians propose that 9/11 drove the American empire onto the path of self-destruction; the most powerful country on earth found itself a decade later teetering on the edge of an economic abyss as a direct result.
Nine. One. One. 911. Emergency. Crisis. Sorrow. War. Mistakes. Recession. The Lost Decade.
But, while its meanings continue to pile up, a new arrangement of the two digits comes along exactly a decade later and, with it, a shifting tide - 99:1. Ninety nine to one. It stands for protest and misery, the slipping of the middle class from their moorings. The former delineates a nation rallying under the flag, speaks of unity against a common enemy. The latter speaks of the opposite: disparity, disunion and, ultimately, disillusionment.
The colon between 99 and 1 has transformed into a raised drawbridge, with the 1 per cent living it up inside the fabled fairy tale ivory citadel while the 99 per cent look in. And the moat? A yawning gap between the haves and rising number of have-nots.
The Occupy Wall Street movement has spread around the world and continues unabated: 99:1 is the symbol of resistance.