The front page of the NYT:
Retailing Chains Caught in a Wave of Bankruptcies
I can’t be the only one who feels like we are one bit of bad news away from rivers of blood and plagues of locusts and hail mixed with fire. And damnit to hell, I am the first-born son in my family.
Dug Jay
Happy days are here, again! You may have to get an actual job now with all these God awful bad things happening. On the other hand, this is pretty good “Sullivanesque”
DougJ
Who cares about that shit, John? Obama ordered orange juice in a diner yesterday. An OJ-drinking Muslim is a much bigger threat to the country than any of this Chicken Little nonsense you and the rest of the MoveOn crowd are always whining about.
This country will stay strong, proud, and free, as long as the man in the White House is a regular guy. It says so in the Bible, and in the Constitution too. You’d know that if you’d ever read either. Put down that copy of Mother Jones and read a historic document. You might learn something.
nightjar
Maybe we should dig up Moses and have him part the Pacific over to China. I hear they’re doing quite well with our jobs.
Tim H.
With the drought we’re probably pretty safe from the blood river thing. But I still have hope for the locusts and fiery hail.
TheFountainHead
What’s more worrisome than the headlines is how little the average American could care about them.
DougJ
No matter how bad the economy gets, I doubt John will be joining you in check-out line at Walmart. Maybe as your supervisor there, but that’s about the best you can hope for. Get back to work on that GED.
The Other Steve
Linens n Things, eh? We’ve generally been shopping at Bed, Bath and Beyond. Mainly cause it’s closer. But then I haven’t bought anything there in over 2 years, since the last time I needed some bathroom rugs.
And honestly, most of our home shopping for the past several years has been at TJMaxx/Home Goods. Pillows for the living room sofa, or pots and pans, even bathroom towels. Mainly because we can get incredible deals.
This winter, I bought a North Face Parka at TJMaxx for $175. This is the thickest down parka that North Face makes. It’s the type of parka you see explorers to the north pole wearing. It retails for $600.
The problem I have is, is it’s hard to find quality any more. That’s the thing I like about TJMaxx, is when I do find something special like that coat, it’s high quality. The fact that it’s a good price too doesn’t hurt. But you know, I may have been willing to spend $500 for a down Parka that was built with 500D Cordura and Kevlar. Yet, there is no place that I am aware of to shop in this town to buy such a thing, which surprises me because it’s Minnesota. Even REI doesn’t sell this. I looked, trust me. Instead what the stores all sell is cheap knockoffs for $300 that are not nearly as well made. Hell even North Face has gotten into this game, most of their mainstream stuff is similar low quality.
I live next to a mall with a fancy retailer in it by the name of Von Maur. I’ve gone in there at times feeling like I wanted something nice, but I hate the quality of their stuff. These are $90 shirts, that feel like rags.
One of the things that has amazed me, is that they moved all of our textile jobs out of the states because it cost too much. They shipped them to China. But then they jacked up the prices.
I remember 20 years ago when $50 was a pretty expensive shirt. And it was good quality and stylish too. Now they’re over $100, and they aren’t made as nicely.
Ok, I’m ranting… Why back in my day, we carried onions on our belts because it was stylish. Now you can’t even get a decent onion.
b. hussein canuckistani
Canada Goose parkas are even better that North Face. Made in North America too, while I believe the cheaper NF parkas (at least) are made in China.
They have lots of D-rings and internal pockets for your onions as well.
More expensive, but since I don’t buy parkas every week, I don’t mind paying extra for a clean conscience.
jake
That’s why I use Lamb’s Blood(TM) after shave.
DougJ
With inflation running just below three percent over 20 years, you’d expect prices of things to nearly double, so going from 50 to 100 is about what you’d predict.
Actually, I get great no iron all cotton shirts at the Brooks Brothers factory store for $55 these days.
Tim H.
Wait, does China count or does it have to be the U.S.?
River
General Disorder
But, but, the glorious Surge is working! They said so.
J. Michael Neal
A few years ago, I bought a lambskin coat at a kiosk in Rosedale. Warmest damned thing I’ve ever worn. It’s a real bomber jacket, not those things that are called that these days. You know, what the boys wore while up in B-17s.
It was also made from New Zealand sheep, protected by minimum wage laws and the right to organize in herds.
jack-of-all-thumbs
Hmmm. I must admit I expected a more serious response to John’s “rivers of blood” concerns. As a middle-aged guy, I’ve watched America become the world’s largest debtor, who’s main occupation is now either moving money around (insurance, credit, finance)or selling fast food and unnecessary plastic crap to each other that’s made elsewhere.
We are indeed looking into the abyss as far as a decline in the standard of living for most Americans.
Punchy
Easy winner of the “Holy No Shit” catagory, and runner-up in the “About 1000 People Predicted this Years Ago” competition….just a taste:
Unchecked? Really? Let’s see…it was designed to be used for any terror-related investigation (the definition of such never formalized), without judicial oversight, and explicitly outlawed the investigatee from even acknowleging that they were served the letter.
Hmmmmm….can’t see how that would be abused….
Cain
Too fuel your outrage, they jack up the prices and then jack up their compensation to management. Not much is re-invested back into the country. They know that they’ll get re-invigorated in the next bailout by the feds.
cain
The Other Steve
Yeah, but we moved the factories to China, so the labor would be cheaper. Right?
I work in IT, so our environment is more business casual casual. That means we can wear jeans. But I like to wear stuff that isn’t ratty. Usually polo shirts. Speaking of which a Ralph Lauren Polo is $70. I actually prefer Tommy Hilfiger, but now that Macy’s no longer carries them, I have to drive all the way to their company store at the Albertville mall 40 miles out of town. But I can get ’em for $30, and they’re better quality. ;-)
I’m surprised at what has happened to Hilfiger. They always had great quality, but stores don’t carry them any more. I wonder if this doesn’t have to do with they got a reputation as being more of a hip-hop trend?
Dork
Fixed for my current economic situation.
Walker
In every purchase I make I consider total cost of ownership. This is not just a concept of businesses. A $100 shirt that lasts half as long as a $50 shirt is four times as expensive.
Unfortunately, the CPI doesn’t work this way. So when the prices go down for lower quality, it is proclaimed as a net good.
Walker
Listened to Morning Edition on NPR on the drive in to work today. I do not know who the commentator was, but he was proclaiming the end of the American Century. He was pointing out that historically, every major world power goes through a stage where they stop making stuff and go into financial services. And then they collapse. They go through some hard times and survive, but they are never a world power again.
This is probably what is in store for us. We will survive, but we will no longer be a superpower.
The Other Steve
Ok, for more outrage.
CEO salaries at mortgage companies
There was a piece yesterday on NPR talking about this. Killinger, CEO at WaMu made $14 million dollars last year in a market where his company was losing billions. In fact his performance pay is based off calculations that do not take into account market losses.
This is pretty common throughout the mortgage market.
When asked, companies say it’s hard to find good CEOs, and they have to pay what they have to pay.
However, is there an argument to be made that these are good CEOs?
Shinobi
Y’know for years I have been concerned that our economy was on the brink of a major collapse. It just seems to me that the level of prosperity we currently have is not sustainable. And that we couldn’t keep getting something for nothing.
However now that it actually seems likely to happen, I’m totally in denial.
The Other Steve
This is probably accurate.
We’ve gone the way of Great Britain. And again, our downfall, like theirs was trying to use our military to manipulate the markets for our companies.
jnfr
I think that was Kevin Phillips they were speaking with. His books are fascinating, and disturbing. He’s an old school Republican, but like John is disgusted with what’s been done to the country over the last decade.
General Disorder
Hey jack-of-all-thumbs:
I agree with you that we are looking into the abyss. Things are probably going to drastically change for the worse, economically speaking. (Bush breaks everything he touches.)
Hopefully people will start learning to do for themselves, such as growing their own food. I bet that sounds like a real downer for many reading this, but someday you may have no choice. I’d start studying up on it, maybe putting in a small plot in the yard this summer, if you have the space. It’s hard work, but the exercise will make you healthier. That, or start sucking up to that nut down the street, some local back-to-the-Earth “bush hippies” type, if you have one. Take gardening lessons from him or see if you can buy food from him. Food growing skills could save your life, if gas goes to $10-$15/ gallon. It’s a sad prospect, but what are you going to do? As for myself, I’m ready.
Tsulagi
No worries. The Commander Guy admin has a plan and has been working it hard. Any really smart Republican with that party’s gift for business sense can tell you if tax rates were reduced to zero, government would have infinite revenues.
That proven logic has been used on the US dollar. When Decider Man took office, the euro was worth around .80. Today it’s at $1.58. See the genius? If the USD can be made completely worthless, you’ll have infinite wealth.
While not there yet, remember, our leader and his crack admin still have nine months and it’s legacy time. Given their track record, nothing is impossible.
Dave S.
All those articles you reference are bad news for the Democrats.
John Cole
Elitist.
4tehlulz
>>I bet that sounds like a real downer for many reading this,
Question for
Mr. Fuck-You-I-Got-Minethe survivalists in the group:Since the social order is scheduled to break down soon, should I execute my insulin-dependent wife now, or wait until Lilly can’t keep the insulin plants open and let her die of ketoacidosis?
Tony J
Fixed, for MSM truthiness.
dj spellchecka
to me the big news of the day is jonah goldberg’s latest la times column in which he imparts the shocking information that he thinks obama is a [gasp] “yuppie.”
Person of Choler
We are treated to an update of the Apocalypse from someone named John, but this one gets his signs and portents from the headlines of the New York Times.
Or are we channeling Jeremiah (the lamenting biblical one, not the Chicago race hustler)? Is this mournful prophesy a hint of a coming savior, an Obamessiah?
The last Messiah racket culminated in a race of embittered gun toting cretins in small town Pennsylvania. Be careful what you start
The Populist
Well, I see one silver lining here…if the dollar stays in the toilet, maybe we can fill some of that shuttered manufacturing capacity and get back up to speed.
Our days as a “superpower” ended when we invaded Iraq.
dbrown
Good news? Get real – like thermodynamics, good things take work; doing that which is easiest, only leads to bad news. Feeding young men into the meat grinder of Iraq is easy for repubics because otherwise, they’d have to think and that is work. Having an IQ of a bush is exactly what bushwhack and his moron followers have achieved. We are fucked as oil continues to kill our economy.
Delia
Yeah, this is indeed Kevin Phillips. His new book is called Bad Money and is out today. I think I’m gonna get it. I’ve liked his others: his one on the Bush family and the one on American Theocracy.
binzinerator
In other words, CEO performance pay is not based on performance. But of course.
I hope somewhere there is another Mme. Defarge, recently foreclosed upon, knitting quietly, furiously, waiting, waiting….
w vincentz
Sadly, the primary problem now facing the people of the planet is food. The prices of rice and wheat have risen by huge margins during the past year.
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/04/09/8192/
I suggest that everyone plant a garden, learn to forage, and find alternative fuels (firewood) to off set the rising cost of fossil fuels.
As a “green alternative”, urban methane generation that uses plant based “garbage” and other domestic “wastes” should be considered by city governments. A byproduct of methane generation is high quality compost, that can be used for food production.
jack-of-all-thumbs
Considering the comments by General Disorder and w vincentz, I continue to act on my conviction that there is a middle ground between (1) accepting whatever change occurs as a result of American economic upheaval, and (2) buying gold, cartridges and MREs. Though a non-economist, it has long seemed to me that our country was headed for hard economic times, and I’m convinced that the eBay and WalMart crowd are not ready for anything like the food rationing in post-WWII England that Kevin Phillip’s referred to this morning in that NPR story. That being said, my wife and I have taken steps to avoid having to compete with that crowd if such things did come to pass. Yes, we have an extensive garden, canning much produce just as our grandmothers did. We even raise some of our own meat, heat with wood, and have the capacity to collect and store 5000 gallons of portable water.
Do I think the aliens are landing? No. Do I think there will be a military takeover? No.
But do I plan to throw myself and my family into the mix along with the majority of helpless Americans, if those who hold our nation’s IOUs or energy supplies decide to pull the plug?
No.
w vincentz
Jack-of-all-thumbs,
I agree with you and your approach to finding the “middle”.
Like you, I grow most of my own food, supply my own heat, and participate in activities that have direct benefits such as hunting and fishing. Alas, many people have not developed these skills. For many, walking or riding a bike will be the major method they will change their lifestyles to confront the coming adjustments.
I firmly believe that “government” will not “do it” for the populace. The most positive alternative is to become more self reliant, thereby preventing the feeling of being one of the “majority of helpless Americans”. Self reliance is empowering and generates domestic security.
As all Boy Scouts are taught, “Be prepared”.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
If you like Kevin Phillips, make sure to find yourself a copy of one of his older books “The Cousin’s War” (1999). At 600+ pages (in paperback) it is a bit heftier than his more recent books, but worth the read.
He makes a case for the idea that Red states vs. Blue states today, the US Civil War, the US Revolutionary War, and the English Civil War of the 1640’s have all been continuations of the same ethnic/religious/cultural conflict. 400 years and counting of flinging poo (and occasionally grapeshot) at each other. Makes you think we have might have more in common with the Shi’ites and Sunnis in Iraq than we’d like to think.
As a side note, he makes some interesting points near the end of this book about the massive number of speakers of German who immigrated to the US from Central Europe and were assimilated into an English speaking country, and the tipping point effects this may have had on the demographic balance of power between Germany and Great Britain + Allies during World Wars I and II.
For example, it’s ironic how the Normandy invasion was commanded by a guy whose last name was “Eisenhower”, but when you think about the demographic reality underlying that seeming coincidence, it makes you think about what might have happened if all those people had gone somewhere else, and heeded the call of the vaterland when the time came.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
immigratedemigrateddang! now I’m starting to sound like Chimpy. I can haz sum spellin?
w vincentz
ThatLeftTurnInABQ,
Thank you for the insight of Kevin Phillips. I intend to find the book you cite.
I have long been interested in conflict, and more importantly, conflict resolution. This has occurred throughout eons, not only by Europeans but also within the tribes of Native Americans. The tribal conflicts of the Iroquois were resolved by the alliance of the five nations.
This served as a model during the foramative years of our own country. You might find this to be of interest as their methodology could serve in these times.
http://www.kahnawakelonghouse.com/index.php?mid=2
In my humble view, only mutually beneficial alliances will provide for a peaceful way forward.
oh really
Thank the Baby Jesus we have the man to fix this mess.
Saint John The Straight Talking Maverick will deliver four years of (slightly) kinder, gentler Bushism and everything will be perfect.
Krista
Indeed. The necessity of this was really driven home to me after Hurricane Juan. People were just so unprepared to be without power for two weeks. A lot of people I knew didn’t have any cash on them or in the house, and after the storm hit, the ATMs were down for about a week. So even if you could find a store that was open, with what would you pay?
We don’t raise our own meat, but other than that, we’re planning on doing pretty much all the same stuff that you are. We’re also considering a generator and some solar panels.
A certain amount of self-sufficiency is not a bad thing to learn.
jack-of-all-thumbs
For us it was Hurricane Fran seeing the lines of people waiting for water and ice.
Since then during hurricane season we always have 20 gallons of gas with stabilizer on hand and I run the generator every few weeks year round.
And yes, Kevin Phillips has truly seen the light in the last ten years. I have his ‘American Theocracy’.
LiberalTarian
Every so often I go south down I-5 for field work, and I marvel at the trucks hauling food, produce, water, beer (beer, glorious beer) and other sundries up north. If that supply is disrupted, what happens to the people who go to the grocery store once a week for their supplies?
I don’t think our civilization is crashing — yet. On the other hand, I think it is a DAMN GOOD IDEA to recognize how fragile our system really is. We can’t outsource our economy indefinitely. If some massive disruption were to happen we’ll all be Katrina victims in the Superdome. Unless, of course, we have a plan.
My plan? Beans, water and liquor–lots and lots of liquor (for barter silly).
nabalzbbfr
And in other news, as I and other right minded folks have been saying for a couple of weeks, the totally vanquished and thoroughly demoralized Iraqi Army continues to quietly mop up the triumphant Shiite militias down in Basra. According to that right wing party organ Agence France Presse:
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5jau8cyaqusv7BMEs2SCe0aFbTabA
TenguPhule
Which would probably be more believable if little things like this didn’t stand out:
But that is a small price to pay in nabalzbbfr’s eyes for three whole neighborhoods willing to speak praise of the people holding guns in their homes.
A few more victories like this and we’ll need to learn Arabic.
Tax Analyst
Why do you hate Emirica, John?