That’s the sound of trillions of imaginary dollars sucking the real dollars out of my bank account. Why is it that in spite of almost everyone I know being either broke or strapped down, laid off or about to be, or at least in a mild panic, that the media keeps kind of saying “hmm, looks like things could get bad. Are they getting bad? Looks like they might. Check those numbers again. Hmm. Things look kind of bad, but are they really? Let’s go over those figures one more time…” It feels a little like people not really talking too much about Obama being black until the election was over, because they thought it would jinx things or something. The media’s spin on the economy (notice even I didn’t say “economic crisis”?) leaves me feeling like I’m on a huge airliner that’s about to crash. The ride’s still okay, I’ve got my in-flight snack in hand, but I have no idea that any minute now I’ll be dead. Not to worry though, in the big picture: it’ll be a gentle crash in the desert with a few survivors, not a headlong plunge into a mountainside in the jungle. I keep having a fantasy that world leaders will make what I consider a rational leap in thinking and say “You know, this whole money concept is a bit archaic. Getting off the gold standard wasn’t so hard, let’s get off the currency standard. Who needs a silly depression anyway”. That’ll be the day. In the meantime I’ll be rediscovering my best ramen recipes while jerkoffs like Hank Paulson keep figuring out ways to hang onto the extra houses they don’t live in.