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Late Night: Foo Fighters

By Jeralyn, Section Media
Posted on Fri Jan 30, 2009 at 01:28:38 AM EST
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I was listening to the Foo Fighters sing "Times Like These" on the radio driving to the jail today, and when the line came, "It's time to love again" in my head it came out "It's time to work again."

I think the economy has everybody fearful, even those without pressing problems. I've worked non-stop all week, days and nights, and I think next week will be the same. Kind of like a "get it while you can" philosophy because we don't know how really bad it's going to get.

[More...]

All the financial people I talk to say we haven't hit bottom and stocks are unlikely to make a quick rebound. As I walk around downtown I see stores all lit up but no one inside. Who's buying furniture, art, sexy lingerie these days?

I'm fortunate that my business is brisker than usual. So instead of doing my usual thing of declining new cases, I'm taking them, because I don't know how bad it's going to be.

I know that Obama's $1,000. tax cut means nothing to me -- one way or another it will go back to the government. I'd much rather see the money go to lower prices that would drive people back to restaurants and boutiques and other small-owned shops, so they can do more business and hire more people. I find I'm tipping a lot more, thinking just a few dollars more means a lot to a great many folks these days.

Since I'm not a football fan, the Superbowl strikes me as a particularly unnecessary extravaganza. But from the inserts in my newspapers, which are flooded with deals for pizza and other overpriced, non-nutritious food, everyone's hoping for a boon.

The best deals right now are airfare. Apparently the value of the dollar is rising overseas. Between security which has made flying so miserable, and the planes that have become so cramped you feel like you're packed in a can of sardines, I'm just not interested.

I think I'll learn to love my work again (not hard to do since I really do love it) so that when a dryspell hits in my business, I'll at least know I can get by. Since I have no economic knowledge, I wonder how many people out there with a similar lack of knowledge come away from the media coverage of our economic disaster the same way.

This is an open thread.

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    • Late Night: Foo Fighters | 11 comments (11 topical)
    Supermajority? (none / 0) (#1)
    by squeaky on Fri Jan 30, 2009 at 01:41:31 AM EST
    Is better than Superbowl, which I also have zero interest in. It will be interesting if Obama selects Judd Gregg (R NH) as Sec of Commerce, because then we will have 60 Dem senators.

    ..provided that Al Franken emerges victorious in the Minnesota recount, it would give Democrats in the Senate a 60th caucusing member, as New Hampshire's Democratic governor John Lynch would appoint Gregg's replacement.

    HuffPo

    Personally I am trying to avoid gloom and doom and I do not have any knowledge about the economy. But it sure is quiet in the art world...  I hear that people with lots of cash are holding out to wait and see how low prices go.

    On the other hand I heard that some did OK at the recent LA art fair, lots of energy, crowds and buying as long as the prices were super dirt cheap, relatively speaking that is.

    Franken legal strategy (none / 0) (#2)
    by Cream City on Fri Jan 30, 2009 at 02:19:02 AM EST
    is interesting -- he went on vacation, while Coleman haunts the courthouse.

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    Sad (none / 0) (#3)
    by squeaky on Fri Jan 30, 2009 at 02:43:54 AM EST
    At this point even pathetic. Doesn't sound like the circus is going  very well for Coleman either.

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    Staying "on-topic" (none / 0) (#5)
    by maladroit on Fri Jan 30, 2009 at 03:47:35 AM EST
    i absolutely love foo fighters.

    i have the biggest crush ever on Dave Grohl.

    :)

    DG is one heck... (none / 0) (#10)
    by MileHi Hawkeye on Fri Jan 30, 2009 at 09:52:30 AM EST
    ...of a nice guy too.  Smart, funny, good natured and a lot more musically talented than most realize.  

    Very few people would have predicted that out of the ashes of Nirvana, Dave would have been the most successful musically.  The smart money was always on Krist.  It's kind of like if Ringo had become the superstar post-Beatles.

    /Drummers rule.

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    Turn off the news Watch cartoons (none / 0) (#6)
    by mmc9431 on Fri Jan 30, 2009 at 06:28:01 AM EST
    Like most people, I know nothing of what is really going on in the world of finance. (From the look of things even those in charge don't). So I've just fallen into a sense of resignation. There's nothing I can do except tighten my seat belt for the bumpy ride. If everything crashes around me, I'll have a lot of company.

    I have been encouraged that my phone has rung a few times since the holidays! People that were reluctant to buy then have decided to splurge.

    I wish the media would have been a diligent in their reporting of Iraq as they have the economy. The constant drum beat of gloom and doom is dragging everyone into it.

    One silver lining, perhaps (none / 0) (#7)
    by SeeEmDee on Fri Jan 30, 2009 at 07:24:47 AM EST
    One such silver lining might be that the supporters of the profligate and horrendously destructive DrugWar will face the prospect of having to justify those continued expenditures in the face of increasingly severe economic stress experienced by the taxpaying public.

    When so many are in desperate need of financial support via things like unemployment insurance, it will become increasingly harder for the bureaucrats, prosecutors, judges, police, etc. to say that the War on (Some) Drugs must continue to be funded when it so obviously has failed on every level, save one: fattening the wallets of the DrugWarriors and the cartels simultaneously.

    When the next round of (inevitable and inexorable) screw-tightening begins, I expect to begin to hear voices in the media, quietly at first, but in increasing volume, begin to call for a debate on continuing the DrugWar when it has failed so terribly and cost so much in doing so.

    Recently, the El Paso City Council, not known for its' comity, had unanimously passed a resolution asking for such a debate...and the forces of drug prohibition immediately circled the wagons to protect their gravy train. But the 'locomotive', like so much of US government operations, was powered more by borrowed money than tax revenue, and our foreign creditors have shut off the liquidity valve. It's long past time to live within means, and that goes double for Uncle Sam. Who now has to decide whether to fund a social safety net...or fund something that provides support only to drug prohibitionists. The choice is that simple...and that stark. And to fail to acknowledge this, as even some so-called 'progressives' have, is to risk even greater disaster than what we presently face.

    I'm starting to worry about.... (none / 0) (#8)
    by kdog on Fri Jan 30, 2009 at 08:38:51 AM EST
    massive inflation...caught a report on the tv, and if I understood correctly, there is about double the money in circulation that there was only ten years ago.  Doesn't that make one dollar worth 50 cents?

    I'm an economic rube as well, but it seems our government is trying to print our way out of this by just printing more currency...I'm waiting for 20 dollar loaves of bread.

    Inflation already happened to a degree (5.00 / 1) (#9)
    by CST on Fri Jan 30, 2009 at 09:34:02 AM EST
    over the course of 10 years.  And the Fed has been printing more money.  But honestly, right now we're facing deflation because there are too many "goods" on the market and no one buying.  Not to mention, the U.S. can still spark one hell of a global recession(depression?).  So while we are hurting, a lot of countries overseas are hurting more.  

    The value of the dollar is rising right now and prices are going down.  So while 1 dollar may be worth 50 cents because of more money being made, the cost of a burger went from 1 dollar to 75 cents because there are too many burgers and no one buying (I couldn't think of anything that actually cost a dollar...).  That's the silver lining I guess.

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    I guess the inflation... (none / 0) (#11)
    by kdog on Fri Jan 30, 2009 at 10:01:14 AM EST
    won't hit hard until the economy rebounds and people are spending money again.

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    Yep (5.00 / 1) (#12)
    by CST on Fri Jan 30, 2009 at 10:40:23 AM EST
    It probably will.  

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    Late Night: Foo Fighters | 11 comments (11 topical)