Edward Harrison of Credit Writedowns has a lengthy post on Naked Capitalism entitled The recession is over but the depression has just begun. Basically, Harrison has concluded that despite the fact that the national government now remains the only entity that can "pick up the slack" in generating demand to get the economy moving forward, "large scale government deficit spending is politically impossible." Hence, welcome to America's new Lost Decade.

I'm looking out on my eight garden beds in the back yard. The strawberry and asparagus bed is wintering-over just fine. I cut the asparagus ferns down a week ago, when they finally turned brown, and fell over. Now, they are ready for sending up new stalks, which I will be able to harvest this year. This past year, each crown sent up at least twelve stalks, so, I expect this year to be a real good year for them. I just pulled and started dehydrating the parsley that I had growing with the asparagus. The strawberries seem to not realize that it is winter. I picked a good, hardy variety, and they are green, and still sending out new shoots, which I need to snip back every few weeks.

Exactly. Why do I have to read this in an Asian paper, and not a US publication? Nevermind..

Leverage is the secret of American wealth. The average American family in 2004 had a net worth of US$448,000 on an income of $43,000, according to the Federal Reserve's survey of consumer wealth. Wealth equaled 10.4 years worth of income. In 1989, the Fed survey shows, it was only 7.3 years of income, and just 3.8 years worth in 1962. Measured in years, why should the ratio of Americans' net worth amount to annual income have tripled between the administrations of John F Kennedy and George W Bush?

I'm not really joking. The banking crisis is rapidly getting, how do they say? "Out of hand." These idiots in charge have long since proven they aren't capable of dealing with Reality, when it gets ugly (cf Katrina, Iraq, Georgia, etc.) So: what are you doing to prepare?

I've put down ~75 quarts of homegrown, so far. There's more I know I should do. Ideas? I'm not the only one asking.

The International Herald Tribune reports today that the Stock Market continues to slide.