10 - gas is $4 a gallon, and people are scrimping at the grocery store in order to fill up the tank

9 - ford is delaying the introduction of its new (but no more efficient) pickup truck to make sure the outgoing model, which is highly unpopular, sells out first.

8 - a beach restaurant which opened 2 months ago is permanently closed already - and its allegely "peak season"

7 - people are willing to spend $3,500 on a "euro style scooter" which they can't ride in the rain, or during the 6 months of the year with inclement weather, in order to "save on gas".

6 - (the russians are coming - part 1) some russian oil baron bought donald trumps florida mansion for $100 million.

5 - (the russians are coming - part 2) oddly enough, resort shops are still willing to import russian shopgirls at minimal wage and minimal housing suitability, rather than pay actual american teens to work in their stores. why does obama think unilaterally abrogating NAFTA is going to put americans back to work when clothing stores and restaurants won't put americans back to work?

4 - some brazilian company thinks it can get rich quick by acquiring the Busweiser Beer company and raising prices.

3 - senator russ feingold assured the public that there is no connection between oil supply and pump prices, that we need not ever drill for oil again (just build windmills, russ? but ted kennedy vetoed the one i wanted to put offshore. he said it would ruin his million dollar view)

2 - we'd pretty pray that global warming is real - if it isn't, then millions of families could have their heat turned off for non-payment this winter

1 - slate, which is not known for its economic expertise, thinks that the potential bankruptcy of an amusement park chain might be a more horrific blow to the economy than the tens of thousands of financial jobs which have already been lost to the subprime crisis . . .

baltimore aureole:

...4 - some brazilian company thinks it can get rich quick by acquiring the Busweiser Beer company and raising prices...

Budweiser is being bid upon by a Belgian company. The only thing that Brazil is guilty of is of sending us a few Victoria's Secret models, and I for one forgive them for that. On the other hand they brew their own automobile fuel (ethanol) from sugar cane and are way ahead of us when it comes to energy independence.

Here's a good one. There's a house in our neighborhood (new construction, 4000 square feet, five bedrooms, four and a half baths, Viking kitchen, three car garage with a full suite on the second floor) that started out at $1.9 million six months ago.

A year ago, those places were selling like hotcakes, there were bidding wars on them and they frequently went for more than the asking price. This was partly because of the neighborhood. Now the price has dropped to $1.2 million. Our real estate agent tells us that in another six months, we could probably get it for about $989,000.00, around half what it started at.

But then...who wants the thing? The property taxes alone are insane. You have to heat and cool all that space - three storeys plus a basement. Then, the kicker, who the hell NEEDS all that square footage?

The thing about all those "lost" jobs in the financial "industry" is that most of them were phony to begin with. By "phony", I mean they only existed because Wall Street figured out how to create more imaginary wealth than ever before, and then hired a lot of guys to move that imaginary wealth around. This proliferated throughout the system, on down to the failed-used-car-salesman mortgage brokers who are (oh frabjous day, callooh, callay) mostly out of work now.

I agree that widespread unemployment is a bad thing. Obviously. But those jobs were never real to begin with; they were based on a dream of wealth unearned and productivity that hadn't actually been produced. At some point, the American corporate sector is going to have to learn that it will have to WORK for its money - that is, actually DO something. PRODUCE something. Creating phony financial instruments to move around portions of pooled mortgage debt isn't work, it isn't doing, and it isn't producing. It's just a con.

6 - (the russians are coming - part 1) some russian oil baron bought donald trumps florida mansion for $100 million.

Actually, it was his "spec house". His mansion is Mar A Lago and has never been been listed.

We all go to factory. Make beeg heavy electric generator equipment. Get Order of Lenin when work 9000 hours straight and fall over dead.

quick math - thats $500 a square foot

"luxury homes" normally cost $200 a SF to build. (a 4000 sf home for $800,000)

whats in this one? gold plated light switches and diamond studded doorknobs?

"in soviet union, they only pretend to pay us. okay, though - we only pretend to work"

the arab "sovereign funds" are buying all our banks

the russians are scooping up all the real estate

there must be something to this "living under a corrupt regime", eh?

main street catches a cold.

irrespective of certain peoples feelings that money changers are despised in the eyes of god, a transparent and fairly regulated marketplace for the exchange of financial instruments is essential to running a modern economy.

to see that this is true, one need only examine the great depression, or 3rd countries which impose "protective" capital and currency controls.

You got it! Ridiculous, isn't it? Building in Chicago is an entirely different creature than it is in Texas (which is my only point of reference in the US).

Here, the trades are all fully trained, licensed and educated. They must all carry their own insurance. No one can so much as look sideways at a pipe, for example, unless they're either a plumber or an inspector. BTW, all new constructions homes in Chicago MUST be copper. No plastic, like in Texas.

The drawings have to pass through City Hall to be approved. Each phase of construction must be inspected, from the foundation on up. The final inspection of a home can cost the builder plenty because those guys can make them change a lot of things. No passed inspection, the house can't be listed for sale.

In Texas, the drawings are merely registered with the County, then the model is built and inspected for 10 minutes. After that, the entire subdivision can be built with no further oversight. Texas is a "right to work" state, so there are no unions to enforce quality control. Some of the biggest builders in the state cruise gas stations for illegal aliens every day.

Texas builders pay no insurance, the workers have no insurance, and everyone just crosses their fingers that the workers get the measurements right, because no one is checking up on them.

I'd sooner pay more, after seeing some of the crap that gets built in Texas.