Obama’s remarks on small town America spot on

Obama is under fire for telling the truth about small town America — they’ve been left behind:
You go into these small towns in Pennsylvania and, like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing’s replaced them…And they fell through the Clinton administration, and the [...]

The American consumer

Over the past seven years, photographer Brian Ulrich has taken photos of the American consumer culture. He dubbed his series the “Copia” project.
Ulrich’s series captures the ubiquitous excess and thick consumerism that are so common in stores throughout the US. He also keenly notes the correlation between the American citizen and the American consumer:
[After 9/11,] [...]

Oil prices at ‘threshold’ of civil disturbances

John Hofmeister, president of Shell Oil Company, said on Charlie Rose last night that oil demand cannot be met by current supply — foreshadowing rising petro prices and potential rebellion by consumers. Also, according to his analysis, we’re stuck with oil for at least another 20 years:

When Hofmeister speaks of drilling more in the US, [...]

European tourism in US set to explode

PASSPORT reflects on the open-skies agreement going into effect next week:
This is great news… if you live in Europe. New fares may apply to folks on both sides of the drink, but Europeans are finding great opportunities to spend their euros in the United States, while American tourists find that a dwindling few countries even [...]

So, what’s up with the economy?

If you don’t know, don’t feel bad. Despite my best efforts, I can’t explain what’s going on either. David Leonhardt wrote a piece in the NY Times yesterday telling us not to feel so bad:
Raise your hand if you don’t quite understand this whole financial crisis … I’m here to urge you not to feel [...]

BTW, China’s Economy is Far Smaller Than We Thought

China, it turns out, isn’t a $10-trillion economy on the brink of catching up with the United States. It is a $6-trillion economy, less than half our size. For the foreseeable future, China will have far less money to spend on its military and will face much deeper social and economic problems at home than [...]

Merrill Lynch: Recession Here

The BBC is reporting that Merrill Lynch believes that the US economy is in recession:
The feared recession in the US economy has already arrived, according to a report from Merrill Lynch.
It said that Friday’s employment report, which sent shares tumbling worldwide, confirmed that the US is in the first month of a recession.
…
An official ruling [...]

Economists ‘Looking for a Bunker to Hide in’

I can’t get around the economy online today. NYT, WSJ, and SF Gate all have pieces relating to the state of the financial system. It’s looking bad.
NYT:
“This is unambiguously negative,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Economy.com. “The economy is on the edge of recession, if we’re not already engulfed in one.”
SF Gate:
The Bush [...]

Our Economy

Summed up in two comics.