Depressionomics' Predictions for 2009

1. "Economic Depression" will be declared before December 31, 2009. TPTB are always slow to declare this. They just officially declared the "U.S. in Recession" like about a month ago. What a surprise! David Rosenberg Chief Economist at Merrill Lynch, this week, declared we are already in an Economic Depression! Many other Bearish notables have declared it as well, but this Mr. Rosenberg is no lightweight.

2. Downsized living, debt freedom and creative frugality hints will be the new "Flip this House".

3. The Obama Team will explore the ending of the Marijuana prohibition as a viable source of new tax revenue.

4. Obama commerative coins and plates are found in the "Dollar Store" Salvation Army, and Goodwill by the end of March.


5. Backyard gardening and Soil restoration will replace Carnival Cruises, Disney and Tahoe vacations.

6.  Affluenza sufferers will be the subject of a new reality series called "I See Debt People ".   It will be produced by the folks who brought us VH1's "Celebrity Fit Club". 

7. The Shopacopalypse continues to devastate the discretionary consumer sector of the US economy. Garage sales, flea and farmer's markets will be found in every suburban neighborhood and will morph into a powerful shadow economy

8. California will continue to be ground zero for economic implosion. Instead of Dust Bowl refugees coming into the state in GD 1.0, this time former McMansion dwellers in Ford Explorer hybrids will flee to Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado,Oregon, Washington, and Hawaii. Oregonians will take to the streets, though,  in protest and will pass around petitions to keep them out of that state.  The illegal immigrants will take up residence the abandoned and foreclosed homes.


9. Starbucks files for Chapter 11.

10. The nine bailout banks will become nationalized and the losses will not be contained due to exponentially exploding credit card, mortgage and auto loan defaults. The worst is yet to come.

11. Martha Stewart will have an afternoon show that will focus on 19th and early 20th century domestic arts such as canning, gardening, sewing, crotcheting, knitting and rugmaking. A special feature of the show will be a "Trash to treasure" craft demonstration.  It will be so popular that Oprah will  follow the trend as well.  

12. The "Supernanny" will train parents how to re-program their greedy, spoiled, brand conscious, materialistic brats out of cell phone, Ipod, and XBox addiction.  She will lead them out to the backyard and transform their monster swing set playgrounds into raised bed gardens.  "Seeds of Change" packets, miniature wheel barrows and shovels will channel  all of the pent up frustrations.   

13. The Big Island will escape the worst of the economic depression when ex-Californians start relocating here in ever increasing numbers, due to escalating civil unrest in the Golden State after Arnie declares the state bankrupt.  As of February 1st this is no longer speculation as California, already implementing Plan "D" will start issuing "IOU's" for welfare checks, tax refunds, student loans and vendors.

14. Board games, penny ante poker, neighborhood video showings and variety shows will begin to lift folks out of the fog of economic malaise.  A renaissance of "Personal Connections" will become the national pastime of GD 2.0.   Social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook will continue to be very popular.

15. Pharmaceutical stocks will take a big hit as droves of people start ditching their antidepressants. Once the load of debts and the constant pressure to acquire BMW's, McMansions, and designer handbags eases, and once we start growing our own food, the mood of society will start to lighten up as everyone will begin to discover the light through all of this doom and gloom.

Hilo Living Blog

Readers-You must check out the "Hilo Living" Blog. It's one my favorite "Internet Addiction" places. This is such a fantastic blog, totally Hilo centric but in the context of the broader Global scenario. The bloggers are recent transplants from Silicon Valley but have a deep love for the aina and the culture. I have a feeling they are making lots of friends around here. I sure want to meet them. I expect I will, real soon.
Living so isolated from the rest of the planet, THE remotest archipelago on the planet, we Big Islanders can be somewhat untouched by geo-politcal events. This was certainly the case after the events of September 11, 2001. The overwhelming consensus among Big Islanders was that we were in the safest place we could possibly be. Everyone I met would talk about it, in absolute reverence and appreciation. We all felt so utterly graced to be able to live and prosper in this unique paradise. After that cataclysmic event, only a few were compelled to fly "Old Glory", unlike the enmasse flag flying that instantaneously appeared out of everyone's homes by September 12, 2001. Some may even recall that the State of Hawaii was sharply criticized for the tasteless lack of patriotism. There are many reasons Hawaiians lack the patriotic spirit, that is a subject for an entire blog all by itself, and I will not get into it now. If you are wondering why this place is not to smitten about the US Gov. then listen to the group,Sudden Rush, these Hilo based Hawaiian Rappers (often heard on the popular A&E series, "Dog the Bounty Hunter") says it best, in the song Ea "I ain't ever had an uncle named Sam!" Download that song and you will understand everything you need to know about why this place is not into flying the US flag.
So, the folks at "Hilo Living" posted a very insightful, sensitive, and spiritually based posting about the upside of the coming economic depression. One interesting fact about GD 1.0 is that Hawaii was untouched by that one. Back then, of course, Hawaii was still a territory, and the major economic engine was sugar cane.
I believe the east side of the Big Island will go through the GD 2.0, okay. After all, we had only about 2 years of a frenzied RE boom, and then one day around July 2006, poof, no more. Before that, it was already a severely depressed economy with the demise of the last of the sugar cane. Hilo has never recovered from that. We still have empty spaces in Hilo town, that have not been occupied for almost 20 years now. So for us in Hilo, it is just back to the way it was before 2005, unless you were one of those that took advantage of the equity bubble in your home. Ugh.
I think that the people of East Hawaii will find ways to take advantage of the rich aina and develop an even more diverse agriculture economy. We have so much untapped wealth around here with my biggest hope being that we will continue on a path towards food and energy sustainability. We have a lot to be hopeful for, and now more than ever is our chance to be a model society and show the rest of the world how to live well in a small, efficient "footprint".
So read this blog, "Hilo Living" and then read my response, below. A hui hou!

My hopes are exactly the same as yours but like "Anonymous" , we have a LOT of work to do when it comes to the images that constantly bombard us from MSM. Shows such as "The Hills" and "Real Housewives of OC" are huge impenetrable wall in front of our collective spirits. California is so in the forefront of everything that is wrong with our relationship with money. My biggest wish, much like yours, is that folks like ourselves, living within or below our means will be the new status symbols. Hardly a day goes by that I myself do not struggle with the state of my living conditions-small mortgage free house in dire need of a makeover. Why do I feel like such a loser when my true net worth may be vastly more than some of these "Posers" who have massive 6 figure revolving debts? My true wealth is my clear conscious, and highly functioning creativity, not to mention sound sleep every night. I guess, I was never one that could handle financial stress and have chosen a more humble, austere path in life.
The upside of an economic depression can be a huge windfall for folks who avoided the wealth effect. We will wait and see if Hilo prices will come down, so far not enough. (A Foreclosed McMansion in Sunrise Ridge going for nearly $800K is still out of reach and is likely to simmer for many years. What a shame. Boohoohoo.)
A new show "Momma's Boy's" (a new twist on the Bachelor) has this bimbo clown vying for one of the guys. She is 25 years old and has had numerous boob jobs and various plastic surgeries. She is $136K in cc debt. At least the show portrays her for what she is:massively stupid and phony! the intended guy's mom hates her enormously as she has raised her son to be averse to debt. At least its a beginning of a new positive status. We will get there, this is what the collective consciousness desperately wants, IMO.
Our spirits are starving from the debt load stress, the competition for image status, and this vacant toxic culture. The emotional devastation of Joblessness and poverty will cleanse our collective souls and transform this nation back to the qualities that once made us the envy of the world. Perhaps we will cleanse our spirits to a point where our imaginations and creativity can fluorish once again. How can anyone think with all facilities when bombarded by angry debt collector phone calls at all hours and piles of exponentially rising cc balances with 35% interest rates? It may take all year, just like it took for TPTB to call a recession, but by Dec. 2009 everyone will be facing the reality of "Yes, folks, we are in an Economic Depression and we have a long painful road to navigate". Obama maybe about "Change" but it may not look like the kind of change we were all thinking.

Yet Another DumbAss Law to Spark the Brewing Revolution

There’s a new law going into effect February 10^th that is one of the most stoooopid things I have ever heard. It makes you wonder what kind of dope these legislators are addicted to. If you are a frugal sort, which if you are reading this blog then you will be as outraged as I am. Check it out, if you do not believe it. I sure did not until I saw it here with my own eyes in the Los Angeles Times.

February 10^th it will be illegal to sell used children’s clothing that has not been tested for lead and phthalates (chemicals that make plastic more pliable). Some are complaining that this got passed through CON-gress too quickly. No shit Sherlock. Me thinks there is some big BIZ (most likely instigator that comes to my brain is the irrepressible multinational based in Bentonville, Arkansas with a dumb smiley face as its logo!) Funny, how this little Nanny state law got whizzed through right under our noses. How many Mother’s would have been screaming in the streets with their little ones packed in slings and tummy packs while toting angry placards. I know, I am uber frugalist, but isn’t there some kind of unwritten law that you hand over sacks of your cherished outgrown baby clothes to your new mom friends. I imagine the Gentlyworn Clothes Cops are already graduating their first new recruits as we speak.

The timing on this could not be more asinine as this GD 2.0 gets its walking legs. I know I will now be one of many law breaking citizens because this one is just begging for uncompliance. I can see the angry hordes storming Savers and Salvation Army demanding the return of the “all you can stuff in a bag for $5 specials “. Hopefully, the Gentlyworn Baby Clothes Police (GWBCP) will be fully armed and debriefed in crowd control by then.

I am very suspicious, that a certain Multinational retailer is behind all of this, too. This has Uncle Wally's signature and mega lobbying bucks all over its stinky self. What will the Pelosi Patrol think of next to keep us down in the perpetual poverty pit and debt slavery bondage?

My mind goes haywire thinking of the next tool for keeping society in its place. We have already been robbed in so many ways, from pathetic interest rates on savings, (Thank you Mr. Bernanke and Mr. Paulson) devastation of equities, investments, 401K's, crash of yields in treasuries, and then of course, my favorite-increase in interest rates on credit cards with more and more creative fees (Usury-Guido style) from our dear friends, THE BANKS. What more do the Powers that BE (TPTB) want from us? I could list more and more robberies but, darn it…it’s the New Year and I want to keep focused on the light at the end of this tunnel.

My question is why pick on used childrens clothing? Why not make it illegal to put lead in all the new stuffs for kids from February 10th? And then what about the thousands of other chemicals and poisons that Big Agribiz puts in the food we eat. Or vaccinations that cause seizures and Autism? How about household chemicals and nasty ass oven cleaners? Or the crap they put in public drinking water? I could write millions of words about all this, but you all get the drift. I just do not understand why these legislators want to protect us from used baby clothes because one child died from swallowing a lead button. As tragic as that is, it was an accident and most likely an isolated incident. (The big culprit with that loose button was in fact the crappy manufacturing and lax sewing techniques more than the content of the thing). Now we are going to add more piles of stuff to our already overloaded landfills and let poor children run around in too small and more and more cheap Walmart crap. It is just too insane..

The real issue here, is that we are going to have to shove ourselves away from our cozy routines (American Idle viewing and microwave popcorning) and get angry enough to rile up the masses to revolt. Not only are the present generations headed for a long period of economic decline, but our babies grandkids and their babies grandkids will be chipping away at this $56 Trillion invoice for the next 4 centuries. What will it take for us to say “No More Dumbass Laws”?

E-Cow-nomics

Our friend Joe, from Volcano, sent this to us the other day. I thought it would be a good primer for all of you econ dummies like myself.

SOCIALISM
You have 2 cows. You give one to your neighbour.

COMMUNISM
You have 2 cows. The State takes both and gives you some milk.

FASCISM
You have 2 cows. The State takes both and sells you some milk.

NAZISM
You have 2 cows. The State takes both and shoots you.

BUREAUCRATISM
You have 2 cows. The State takes both, shoots one, milks the other, and then throws the milk away.

TRADITIONAL CAPITALISM
You have two cows. You sell one and buy a bull. Your herd multiplies, and the economy grows. You sell them and retire on the income.

SURREALISM
You have two giraffes. The government requires you to take harmonica lessons.

AN AMERICAN CORPORATION
You have two cows. You sell one, and force the other to produce the milk of four cows. Later, you hire a consultant to analyse why the cow has dropped dead.

CitiGroup VENTURE CAPITALISM
You have two cows. You sell three of them to your publicly listed company, using letters of credit opened by your brother-in-law at the bank, then execute a debt/equity swap with an associated general offer so that you get all four cows back, with a tax exemption for five cows. The milk rights of the six cows are transferred via an intermediary to a Cayman Island Company secretly owned by the majority shareholder who sells the rights to all seven cows back to your listed company. The annual report says the company owns eight cows, with an option on one more. You sell one cow, leaving you with nine cows. No balance sheet provided with the release. The public then buys your bull.

A FRENCH CORPORATION
You have two cows. You go on strike, organise a riot, and block the roads, because you want three cows.

A JAPANESE CORPORATION
You have two cows. You redesign them so they are one-tenth the size of an ordinary cow and produce twenty times the milk. You then create a clever cowcartoon image called 'Cowkimon' and market it worldwide.

A GERMAN CORPORATION
You have two cows. You re-engineer them so they live for 100 years, eat once a month, and milk themselves.

AN ITALIAN CORPORATION
You have two cows, but you don't know where they are. You decide to have lunch.

A SWISS CORPORATION
You have 5000 cows. None of them belong to you. You charge the owners for storing them.

A CHINESE CORPORATION
You have two cows. You have 300 people milking them. You claim that you have full employment, and high bovine productivity. You arrest the newsman who reported the real situation.

AN INDIAN CORPORATION
You have two cows. You worship them.

A BRITISH CORPORATION
You have two cows. Both are mad.

AN IRAQI CORPORATION
Everyone thinks you have lots of cows. You tell them that you have none. No one believes you, so they bomb the shit out of you and invade your country. You still have no cows, but at least now you are part of a Democracy.

AN AUSTRALIAN CORPORATION
You have two cows.Business seems pretty good. You close the office and go for a few beers to celebrate.

A NEW ZEALAND CORPORATION
You have two cows. The one on the left looks very attractive.

The Iconic Image from GD 1.0

Below is a story about one of the children hiding their head in shame while Dorothea Lange took one of the most memorable and iconic photos in history. I have always been very moved by this photo since I first saw it in my days as a young photo journalist in high school. I wondered about this mother and what happened to her. How did she manage to keep her children fed and in one piece through an unimaginable hardship?

Will there be a new iconic photo for this age? I imagine it will be of a foreclosed family of four from Stockton, California living in their Chevy Suburban in a campground somewhere near the Sacramento River. Kids will be shown all sullen and downcast with their beat up portable dvd players and Nintendo DS's. Mom will be shown on her cell phone talking to bill collectors.

For now, the story of Katherine now 77 years old is a simple lesson for us all as we careen and skid into GD 2.0. Yep, she says so down at the end of the story, "Save your money and don't overextend yourself. It doesn't get any more simple than that!

http://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/12/02/dustbowl.photo/index.html

By Thelma Gutierrez and Wayne Drash
CNN

MODESTO, California (CNN) -- The photograph became an icon of the Great Depression: a migrant mother with her children burying their faces in her shoulder. Katherine McIntosh was 4 years old when the photo was snapped. She said it brought shame -- and determination -- to her family.

"I wanted to make sure I never lived like that again," says McIntosh, who turns 77 on Saturday. "We all worked hard and we all had good jobs and we all stayed with it. When we got a home, we stayed with it."

McIntosh is the girl to the left of her mother when you look at the photograph. The picture is best known as "Migrant Mother," a black-and-white photo taken in February or March 1936 by Dorothea Lange of Florence Owens Thompson, then 32, and her children.

Lange was traveling through Nipomo, California, taking photographs of migrant farm workers for the Resettlement Administration. At the time, Thompson had seven children who worked with her in the fields.

"She asked my mother if she could take her picture -- that ... her name would never be published, but it was to help the people in the plight that we were all in, the hard times," McIntosh says.

"So mother let her take the picture, because she thought it would help." Video Watch "we would go home and cry" »

The next morning, the photo was printed in a local paper, but by then the family had already moved on to another farm, McIntosh says.

"The picture came out in the paper to show the people what hard times was. People was starving in that camp. There was no food," she says. "We were ashamed of it. We didn't want no one to know who we were."

The photograph helped define the Great Depression, yet McIntosh says her mom didn't let it define her, although the picture "was always talked about in our family."

"It always stayed with her. She always wanted a better life, you know."

Her mother, she says, was a "very strong lady" who liked to have a good time and listen to music, especially the yodeler named Montana Slim. She laughs when she recalls her brothers bringing home a skinny greyhound pooch. "Mom, Montana Slim is outside," they said.

Thompson rushed outside. The boys chuckled. They had named the dog after her favorite musician.

"She was the backbone of our family," McIntosh says of her mom. "We never had a lot, but she always made sure we had something. She didn't eat sometimes, but she made sure us children ate. That's one thing she did do."

Her memories of her youth are filled with about 50 percent good times, 50 percent hard times.

It was nearly impossible to get an education. Children worked the fields with their parents. As soon as they'd get settled at a school, it was time to pick up and move again.

Her mom would put newborns in cotton sacks and pull them along as she picked cotton. The older kids would stay in front, so mom could keep a close eye on them. "We would pick the cotton and pile it up in front of her, and she'd come along and pick it up and put it in her sack," McIntosh says.

They lived in tents or in a car. Local kids would tease them, telling them to clean up and bathe. "They'd tell you, 'Go home and take a bath.' You couldn't very well take a bath when you're out in a car [with] nowhere to go."

She adds, "We'd go home and cry."

McIntosh now cleans homes in the Modesto, California, area. She's proud of the living she's been able to make -- that she has a roof over her head and has been able to maintain a job all these years. She says her obsession to keep things clean started in her youth when her chore was to keep the family tent clean. There were two white sheets that she cleaned each day.

"Even today, when it comes to cleaning, I make sure things are clean. I can't stand dirty things," she says with a laugh.

With the nation sinking into tough economic times and analysts saying the current economic crisis is the worst since the Great Depression, McIntosh says if there's a lesson to be learned from her experience it is to save your money and don't overextend yourself. iReport: Are you worried about losing your job?

"People live from paycheck to paycheck, even people making good money," she says. "Do your best to make sure it doesn't happen again. Elect the people you think is going to do you good."

Her message for President-elect Barack Obama is simple: "Think of the middle-class people."
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She says she'll never forget the lessons of her hard-working mother, who died at the age of 80 in 1983. Her gravestone says: "Migrant Mother: A Legend of the strength of American motherhood."

"She was very strict, but very loving and caring. She cared for us all," McIntosh says.

Hawaii's Banks Stand Up to Financial Poo Storm

The November 24th Associated press headline about Hawaii’s banks http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/20081124/BUSINESS/811240329/1071 should make everyone feel very lucky they live Hawaii. In fact, when I googled this headline it showed it being published in media all over the world. This is a very big feather in our States' papale (hat)! The only other state I have checked out as having a stellar banking system is Vermont! (Maybe were not such a bunch of sub third world hillbillies after all!)
Not only that, for the most part our island residents have strong work ethics and even stronger saving habits. I had heard from a reliable source many years ago, that Hilo had the highest per capita savings rate in the state. Now that high savings rate may have a lot to do with the lack of places to spend the money but nevertheless it is something to be very proud.
If readers are so inclined and have an internet connection, a site called Bankrate.com rates every banking and credit union in the United States. First Hawaiian Bank is rated as a 5 star bank with Bank of Hawaii earning a solid 4 stars. I will not sling any mud towards the others banks but will urge anyone NOT in these two banks to check out their institution to see how it rates. If anyone is tempted by the great yields being advertised by certain local institutions on checking and savings then I definitely urge you to take a little side trip to the internet and check it out. With the FDIC under a lot of stress these days I would not want my money in any bank with less than 4 stars. This year alone, over 22 banks have gone under FDIC receivership and many more are waiting in the wings for 2009.
With our two stellar banks there is NO reason to be stuffing the Bank of Sealy. At least with these two we can earn their pathetic 2% interest rate.
And that’s how you tell the difference between a sick bank and a healthy bank. The interest rate yield. If the ad says 4% on checking accounts, then run my friend, run fast to your computer and check the health of your bank. Now is not the time to be chasing high yields. High yields, especially attached to checking accounts are a huge red flag. That’s like your keiki with a 105 degree fever. Not good.
There are hundreds of “Zombie” banks in the US stumbling and lurching like legions of undead. Citibank is a prime example. Deemed to Big to Fail they got bailed out with no embarrassing questions to the CEO, (unlike the Automaker bosses and their private jet itineraries). It is a bit like a brain dead accident victim being kept alive by a heart and lung machine. I suspect that the major shareholder, the Saudi Prince, Al Waleed must have thrown a tantrum and made some ugly threats about the oil spigots if his pet bank didn’t get hooked up to the cash transfusion. Paulson and Bernanke pulled out the checkbook and hooked up the massive IV bag and did it over the weekend without the glaring scrutiny of Congress and CNBC cameras. Clever and sneaky, those ones.
If I were a UAW worker I might just be dusting off a rusty pitchfork and loading up the F150 for quick drive to Washington so I could run my mouth off about that little bailout thingy.

Santa Pause and the End of Sport Shopping

Can it really be that we have entered the age of the Shopacolypse? What sport will replace America's favorite past time now? The retail numbers came in today on CNBC and they exceeded everyone's forecasts to the downside. And today, the Hawaii Tribune-Herald blasted us with news that Domino's Pizza, here for twenty years, has done the belly flop. I am sure many more will follow around here, which is a bad thing since Hilo has such a dearth of retail and dining choices as it is. My prediction for the next door closing will be the last mainland entry into the Hilo dining scene; IHOP. That place never had a chance against Ken's Pancake House.. With their high prices, bad service, and crappy food it was a sure road to pau hana. I'm certain they are hanging on by their bacon drippings. Everytime, I walk past that place, which is not very often, I see a deserted dining room and hands in empty apron pockets. The vibe from that place tells me that the mall will be looking at yet another vacant spot. I have lived on the Hilo side for nearly 14 years and have never seen that mall fully rented. Mainland corporate headquarters must get a big fat tax deduction for that loser.
So, here we be not even 6 days post Halloween, shelves are freshly stocked with Christmas paraphanalia, sparkly, streaming things adorn the ceilings, store owners wring their paws anticipating the annual runup of seasonal profits to closeout the year and deplete the inventory pile. But will we be blowing our dollar wads at Wally World, Macy's and Ross this season? From where I sit, the wallets have not only slammed shut, they have been superglued and tossed in the Bank of Sealy for safe keeping along with the rest of the meager life savings. It may be covered in fuzzy mold by the time it gets pulled out again as me thinks we are in for long ride down the Financial Doom tunnel. There is a light at the end of it but it looks like someone is holding one of those tiny little keychain flashlights from ten miles away.

I saw this trainwreck coming over a year ago, when I caught wind of the subprime mortgage fiasco. I have already done all the hand wringing, fretting, bitching, rice and macaroni hedging and wallet slamming. I am sure I drive everyone around me to the brink of Prozac prescriptions and bong hits with my hyper tightwadding and endless cost cutting measures. But like I said in another post, it is all about the Survival of the Thriftiest these days.

For the majority of folks, whether its the debt money or cash money, times are bleak and getting dimmer. Credit limits are getting battened down by Visa and Mastercard Corp and bad news daily from the Doom-O-Sphere keeps plenty folks on the edge of their diapers worried about who will get the dreaded pink slip next. The weekly jobless numbers continue to exceed expectations to the downside, sending the Dow ever deeper into the darkest reaches of Bear country. I have a client, super secure job with the state, she works in family court. After I delivered her custom tailored suits, yesterday, she exclaimed that I may not see her for a long time due to this recession. When folks with jobs that secure are worried, you know the holiday season is going to be pretty darn bleak.

Will all this bad news cancel the kind of Christmas many have come to expect for the last 50 plus years? How will we deal with the expectations of piles of gift wrapped presents under those artificial twinkling trees come Christmas morning? Will Santa be put on on indefinite Pause and be looking at an early retirement with his depleted 401K? Will folks be hitting garage sales and Sally's Shop (Salvation Army) hunting for used Gameboys, ratty old Malibu Barbies and Wii's ? Maybe this will be everyone's first big lesson in Downsizing 101? Can there be any tasty morsels rattling around here in this bottomless doom pit that can keep our eyes focused on that tiny little flashlight?

So take a taste of this cookie-I will always remember a gift I once received from a fellow tightwadder; Heather Brady was her name. She was an old school New Englander, Boston raised, a classic yankee tightwad. She could clutch a pile of dollars tighter than any girl I ever knew. She is a wildly brilliant artist, accepted at the prestigious Rhode Island School of Design, but never attended due to the cost. (Instead, she became an organic veggie roadie chef for the band "The Cure".) One Christmas, back in my wasted twentysomething daze I shared a house with Heather and other good chick friends. That year she had found a small jewelry box, among other trash treasures, at Goodwill for maybe a dime. She did a makeover on that little box with her outrageous style and creative flair, wrapped it up in recycled paper and put my name on it under our puny little Christmas tree. I have always cherished that present for everything that it represented. (Mind you, it wouldn't win any awards, but it was the soul of that present that held me.) Heather was never my best friend or anything but she made a huge impression on me with her style, class and creativity while being an uber frugalist. This, my friends, is that speck of light at the end of the tunnel: Creativity and innovation. Keep your eyes on it. It will make a comeback and it may just lead us out of the dark endless tunnel of Great Depression 2.0

Creativity and innovation are the qualities that once made the United States such a powerful economic force. In the last ten years or so, we have allowed the Pigmen of Wall Street, those overeducated, twentysomething, brash, Redbulled and Blackberried, Jamie Dimon wannabes, to channel all that creativity into wierd, inscrutable financial instrument products that somehow morphed into some kind of mega-maniac monster of infinite destruction stomping out wealth around the world. This monster and its co-creator, the Federal Reserve, will not stop until every material thing is in their possession and you and I are on a life sentence of Debt Bondage. Thomas Jefferson warned about it long ago and I have quoted that in a previous post. Go read it again.

It is damn near impossible to have any imagination and creativity when all of your life forces are sucked out of you by the exhaustion of debt slavery. But for us to fight back we must stir up these creative juices within us. For many of us, we will have no choice but to resort to creativity and imagination just to put food on the table if nothing else. I can tell you that picking vegetable out of my garden and serving it to my hungry boymen is one of the most soul satisfying endeavor I have ever done. It reaches into the depths and connects me to this earth. It is how God intended us to live. There is NO excuse for anyone not to grow at least one food thing. Green beans love Hawaii, can grow year round, and require little attention. Start with one thing, if time is a factor and soon you will be hooked! It is the ultimate act of creating.

I do know one thing, here at my computer in this mortgage free chicken hale on this remote rock in the Pacific, is that Creativity and Innovation will save our souls. The ability to create things from nothing with our own hands will spark our minds . With this can turn our mountains of trash into treasures. We can plant tiny little seeds and have food to eat. We can take a piece of crummy fabric and sculpt it into a wearable work of art. We can breathe new life into a discarded appliance. We can resurrect a rusting bicycle. A sheet can be torn up and turned into a rug with an old toothbrush. These acts cost nothing but ingenuity and a trip to the Recycling Center or the county dump. (Their is actually a movement of dumpster divers called Freegan !) This can put us on the road to feeling whole and worthwhile again. From this we can give birth to businesses and self employment.

Has shopping at Macy's or Walmart and coming home with that one thing you just had to have, did it ever make you feel worthwhile for more than 5 minutes? Did the feeling last long enough to make it onto the credit card statement? Western civilization is awaking from a long drunken credit card binge, and the hangover is a BITCH. But you already know that as you pop another Tylenol for the migraines. These days are over for the mass majority, as we delever out of this mess. My hope is that "Living within the Means" will be the new way cool for all.

If you do have any kalas to spend this year, and cannot muster the creative forces within, then for the sake of your local economy, spend it at places like Village Toy Shop on Waianuenue Avenue, Hilo Art and Glass, The Cutlery, Basically Books, The Book Gallery, Divas Boutique, Hana Hou, Sig Zane, Bobby Lyn's, MidPacific Wheels, and Sportsline. Go to these locally owned places first. At least you can feel you are doing a good thing for your economy. There are so many outstanding little shops in Hilo that desperately need your kalas. Walmart is doing very well, they DO NOT NEED YOUR dollars, they are a multinational conglomerate, in the Dow 30, Blue chip to the max. Do not be tempted by their drastic cost reductions on name brand items. They suck you into their flourescent souless BigBox and then confuse you with the lighting tricks and colorful displays. If you don't have a list in big black letters in your hand with what you need, you will not be able to find your butt with both hands. You may end up walking out of the place with a Fry Daddy or some crappy package of 7 for the price of six floral cotton boxershorts. People with University degrees and lots of letters after their names design these store layouts just to trick you into buying stuff you don't need. They're stock is up, their numbers are fine. Stay away from Walmart. Don't be fooled by those low prices. However, if you must enter this shrine of the yellow happy face then only buy the stuffs that they use to get you in the door. You know, those $20 dollar laptops the day after Thanksgiving loss leaders. That is how you can be subversive and revolutionary. If thats all we buy from them, then only meager penny profits for da Wally Beast. Besides, lots of poor peasants slave away under inhumane conditions for 23 cents a day so you can wear ten dollar blue jeans. Those peasants have the jobs and we DON'T. Thank you Walmart for everything you have done for America. We bow down at your sacred low price alter.

If you are truly deficient in funds, and living low on the saimin packages, then take a hint from me, rummage through all the old junk in your closets, drawers, carports, storage sheds and car trunks. See if anything sparks your imagination. Do a makeover on it. Clean it up, paint it, cover it, glue toothpicks on it, whatevahs. Give your own imagination and creativity as a gift, and spark your own one person Consumer Revolution. The Shopacolypse is a new beginning for us, and we will renew our pride and spirits with new pursuits. Invest in yourself, this is the future that leads us towards that speck of light.