The Word of the Day is "Slumburbia"

"The developers’ favorite role models, the laissez faire free-for-alls — Las Vegas, the Phoenix metro area, South Florida, this [San Joaquin] valley — are the most troubled, the suburban slums [...] this is what happens when money and market, alone, guide the way we live."

--Timothy Egan, "Slumburbia"

on nytimes.com, 10 February 2010

Click the link for his full short blog entry on the ghost towns dotting the Sunbelt that are filled with underwater McMansions and minimalls of cigarette stores and cash advance outlets, but I also love that Timothy Egan quotes another writer of the American West to sum up the religion of economic bubbles and development even more succinctly:

"Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of the cancer cell."

--Edward Abbey, The Journey Home, 1977

More Evidence that America's Useless-Crap Bubble is Bursting

"Sixty-four percent of people intend to cut indulgent spending this year according to a new survey by HSBC Bank USA. Another survey by Discover Financial Services confirms that sentiment. This month, half of consumers plan to cut down on non-essential spending like eating out, going to the movies and remodeling, according to the report."

-- from "Consumers Pinching Their Pennies" on CNN.com today

Average Fictional Americans Chime in on the Bursting of America's Useless-Crap Bubble

The usual men-and-women-on-the-street over at The Onion* have spoken today about the Sharper Image bankruptcy as an early warning sign of the impending messy bursting of the useless-crap bubble upon which our entire economy floats.

"Never in a million years did I think the American consumer would lose its hunger for expensive, useless products."

--Jack Dimsdale, Systems Analyst

We may have to go back to floating the entire economy on expensive, useless weapons systems instead, though that task may be harder to accomplish if we replace a traditional fear presidency with a hope presidency.

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*Though masquerading as mere "jokesters," please remember that everything in The Onion eventually comes to pass, as proved by this masterpiece of divination published on January 17, 2001.

Forget the Dot.Com Bubble and the Housing Bubble, this is really serious

This just in:

Two Gift Retailers File for Bankruptcy

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: February 20, 2008
Filed at 12:21 p.m. ET

NEW YORK (AP) -- A weak holiday season and a struggling economy led retailers Sharper Image Corp. and Lillian Vernon Corp. to file for bankruptcy this week, and analysts predict others could soon follow them as consumer spending worsens. [. . .]

If the USELESS-CRAP BUBBLE ever bursts, there won't be any US (or Chinese) economy! Only you can buy an Stretching Robotic Massage Recliner or Faux Chocolate Easter Bunny to save us from financial disaster!