It Begins

Israel begins the ground invasion of Gaza. If you really want to understand what is going on, you could do worse than reading this, this, and this. Pushing any person or group to the point they have nothing to lose is bad strategy. It is also a handy way to remove ambivalence. A person who does not consider you a friend but does not hate you, will quickly come to curse your very existence if you back him in a corner. And before leaving the typical anonymous flames in the comments, do note that I didn't say who was pushing whom in this current situation.

State governments begin to collapse. Sales tax revenues are down significantly. Income tax revenues are down significantly. Property tax revenues are down precipitously. The financial collapse of counties and municipalities is also underway, but still hidden in the dust and debris. 2009 is not going to be a year of recovery.

Another industry begins to go into decline. Steel has gotten so beat up for so long that the industry had all the fat cut out long ago. That allowed them to do well until the fourth quarter of 2008, then the bottom fell out for them too. Double-digit unemployment is hard to bounce back from, as anyone who lived through the Carter administration knows.

You know it must be bad when even electronic devices begin committing mass suicide. Actually, it's "just" a leap-year bug, although the fact that there are people in the electronics industry who still don't know how the calendar works is frightening. Far better, of course, that they are screwing up Zunes rather than making $400,000 loans to people that make $17,000/year working five part-time jobs.

Well, off to spread some cheer elsewhere.