Confessions of a Shopaholic: Really?

Really? I saw the preview for Confessions of a Shopaholic while watching TV earlier. Really? In this economic crisis? Is it really ok for the movie/fashion/entertainment industry to be pushing a movie portraying a woman going crazy trying to break her credit card out of a block of ice? To liken shopping with love? I'm sometimes a sucker for chick flicks (I liked The Devil Wears Prada), but I don't think this one is really going to be good. In fact, I think it is going to completely flop. I'm sure there is a good, wholesome, moral ending, where Isla Fisher's character finds true love and a way to pay off her debt, but I don't think that that is even appropriate when our entire economy is going under, when it makes light of people like that who are in serious financial trouble today.

Since its loosely based on a book, like so many other mediocre movies of the same genre (Nanny Diaries, He's Just Not that into You), the filmmakers may have think it will be a success in the same vein. But when the New York Times style section is shopping at WalMart, and Vogue is half as thin as its previous volumes, how is this film going to make it? Who am I kidding, they may think it will flop, too, and are out of money that they just need to try to break even...

LOLFed

Have you heard of LOLCats?

I bet you've never heard of LOLFed.

Economic Victim

Ok. Its official. I am a victim of this bad economy, and I didn't really think it would come or happen to me.

I lost my job yesterday. And now I am part of the 6%+ of this country that are unemployed. My (ex)company is "disbanding" my group and let us all know yesterday. Some of us were absorbed into other practices, but I didn't make a good enough connection with anyone in the profitable groups to stay on, I guess.

It's sad, but it is really an opportunity. I have been thinking about trying some alternative jobs--writing, teaching, entrepreneurship--and this is a forced movement for me. I have to change! I have been thrown into the deep end, and it is sink or swim. Fortunately, I feel like I have bit of a life jacket on, so sinking is not really an option.

So I am putting myself out here on the world wide web in the hopes that someone might be able to help me, to connect me, with an opportunity.

It is weird, and a little embarrassing, but will be a good change overall, I believe. I'm prepared for the worst, and am hoping for the best. It is a week of change, and also a week of HOPE!

Laura Ingalls Wilder and the Economy

Jezebel's Fine Lines column last week wrote about Laura Ingalls Wilder's book The Long Winter, and it compares the Wilder family's hard winter to the current economic crisis. Interestingly, it is very appropriate. Oh, the economy.

Economist of the Day

Today's economist of the day is:

Paul Krugman

So liberal, so free-trade.

He has a blog, too, but I prefer his opinion articles.

Oh my god, I love the New York Times.

Economic Scene

An iPod Has Global Value. Ask the (Many) Countries That Make It.

By HAL R. VARIAN

Published: June 28, 2007

If an iPod costs $299, who gets that money? You might be surprised.