First of all, after being in it for more than a year, I still don't know what to call it. Is it a recession, a depression, a correction, a downturn? It's the P. Diddy of financial disasters.
Second, it has no pizzazz. In the Great Depression they lived in Hoovervilles. Today everyone's on Facebook. Back then, they had Ledbelly and Woody Guthrie. We have the Jonas Brothers.
They had nothing to fear but fear itself. We have terrorism, global warming...and the Jonas Brothers.
Businesses are failing, jobs are being decimated, homes are being repossessed, and the culture is exactly the same. We are still gearing up for the new season of American Idol. We really cared who won a Golden Globe. This is like if the Titanic had hit the iceberg and everyone decided to stay on board and party to the bottom of the ocean.
Thankfully, we finally have someone in authority who is willing to tell us the hard truths, to inspire us and give us a plan: Suze Orman.
On a financial seminar called Oprah, she stresses the importance of getting out of debt, maintaining an eight-month emergency fund and not buying anything unless you can afford it. She also estimates the recession will not be over until 2015.
That's six American Idols from now.
As for the much-touted bailout, on CNN I heard someone say that not only had the first half of the $700 billion been spent, but that "no one knows where it went." I guess Congress is now discussing how best to lose the other half.
I can't wait for Obama to be sworn in, so he can stop talking like a president-elect and start talking like a president. Presidents-elect are essentially still running for the office they just won, using the same phrases and concepts that got them elected.
Obama's cabinet looks like the Clinton administration part two, but I'd like to see Obama model himself as a cross between FDR and yes, Suze Orman.
If he can't solve our financial mess, at the very least he can inspire a better culture. New York City's 1970's economic woes led directly to punk rock and hip hop. It would be a real shame if the Worst Economic Disaster Since the Great Depression gave us nothing more lasting than Superstars of Dance.