As Paul Krugman pointed out on his blog, he called the housing bubble burst - and, to some extent, the dollar fall - years ago:Sorry, but no. A housing slowdown will lead to the loss of many jobs in construction and service industries but won't have much direct effect on the trade deficit. So those jobs won't be replaced by new jobs elsewhere until and unless something else, like a plunge in the value of the dollar, makes U.S. goods more competitive on world markets, leading to higher exports and lower imports.I'm in a bad mood. Pissed at the state of politics in this country, and pissed at myself for being so cranky, and pissed at my mom for sending me more it's-"Merry-Christmas"-not-"Happy-Holidays"-or-you're-disrespecting-Christianity e-mail bullshit and then wondering why I'm upset at what I refer to as "offensive bullshit," as if the annotated 2-page e-mail I sent her in response wasn't clear as to why it could be seen as offensive. A deer in the cultural headlights, as it were.
I said I was in a bad mood. Fucking Christ. I'm finishing off a bottle of wine that's been in my fridge a couple weeks, though, and that's calming me down. Except for the reading of old Krugman columns which just stokes my flames a higher.
Seriously, Fuck Christmas. Let's exchange our gifts at the end of January, when we need some cheering up from seasonal affective disorder, and we can buy gifts for cheap from after-x-mas sales.
In that vein, here's Don's photos from the Dreidel/Santa Rampage. And video. And more video. And yet more video.
Happy Pagan Solstice Festival. Eat a pine cone and buy more shit. Fuck.
