What I Learned Today

December 15, 2008 12:05 PM

What the financial crisis means for sex, lipstick, beer, college endowments, Iceland, love and marriage, Spam, recycling, holiday parties, car sales, sports, baseball free agents, psychics, NASCAR and narcissism...
posted by jim in austin (27 comments total)

Car dealers are desperate to get rid of inventory and are offering invoice and below invoice prices. A word of advice - look for dealers that have a lot of inventory, because they’ll likely offer the best deals. And buy American, if you know what’s good for our economy.

Eh? Do you mean American-made or American brands? Because three Japanese vehicles rank higher on the [Cars.com's American-Made Index] than an iconic ride like the Ford Mustang (which has 65 percent domestically sourced parts).

Otherwise, an interesting set of stats.
posted by filthy light thief at 12:17 PM on December 15, 2008

What the financial crisis means for Religion.
posted by 445supermag at 12:19 PM on December 15, 2008

And buy American, if you know what’s good for our economy.

And buy Japanese if you know what's good for you.
posted by Krrrlson at 12:27 PM on December 15, 2008 [2 favorites]

Sex

Will the financial crisis spark a baby boom?

Well, it is one of the cheapest forms of entertainment, if not the cheapest.
posted by jason's_planet at 12:31 PM on December 15, 2008

Sex

Will the financial crisis spark a baby boom?

Well, it is one of the cheapest forms of entertainment, if not the cheapest.

Depends on where you shop.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 12:35 PM on December 15, 2008 [4 favorites]

In the 1920's, George Taylor noted that skirts got longer as the economy got worse, and called it the hemline index. If the stock market skirt were operating today, it'd probably have yards of fabric pooled on the floor.
posted by hoppytoad at 12:37 PM on December 15, 2008 [2 favorites]

Sex

Will the financial crisis spark a baby boom?

Well, it is one of the cheapest forms of entertainment, if not the cheapest.

Depends on where you shop.

...and what else you happen to pick up along the way.
posted by gman at 12:46 PM on December 15, 2008

Will the financial crisis spark a baby boom?

People are so broke they can't afford a rubber?
posted by Nelson at 1:00 PM on December 15, 2008

Executive Pay Limits May Prove Toothless: Loophole in Bailout Provision Leaves Enforcement in Doubt

What the financial crisis means for Wall Street executives: $$$!
posted by homunculus at 1:00 PM on December 15, 2008

I would have thought NASCAR would start adding right turns to even out tire wear.
posted by tommasz at 1:02 PM on December 15, 2008 [2 favorites]

Psychics, astrologers, palm readers, and “professional advice-givers” say business is booming as clients come to them seeking financial guidance. Clients will typically pay $75 to $1000 for an hour’s worth of insight!

I am at a complete loss to come up with a sufficiently sarcastic comment on this.
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 1:04 PM on December 15, 2008

I am at a complete loss to come up with a sufficiently sarcastic comment on this.

Lemme give it a try for you:

Psychics, astrologers, palm readers, and “professional advice-givers” say business is booming as clients come to them seeking financial guidance. Clients will typically pay $75 to $1000 for an hour’s worth of insight!

How is this any different than investing in the stock market?
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 1:12 PM on December 15, 2008

A lady says nice things while she reads my palm or the cards. Those investor guys are all buy buy sell sell. There's no human connection.
posted by Tehanu at 1:24 PM on December 15, 2008

I am not doing much to help out Inbev, but if you see an increase in Irish whiskey and Scotch consumption know that I am doing my party.
posted by hexxed at 1:25 PM on December 15, 2008

No sport has seen as detrimental an effect of the economic crisis as NASCAR.

Finally, some positive news from this economic crisis.

Except, of course, that NASCAR is a fairly big employer, and its failure will mean lots of layoffs.

The mark of these times is that even the schadenfreude is marred by bad news.
posted by gurple at 1:26 PM on December 15, 2008

part that is....Freudian slip
posted by hexxed at 1:26 PM on December 15, 2008

Look at all the things with upticks: sex, cheap beer, marriage, canned meat and psychics. There has to be some sort of pattern there but I'll be damned if I can see what it is.
posted by jim in austin at 1:50 PM on December 15, 2008

Aw. If the craft breweries go out of business, I will stab someone. While crying and drinking Bud Light.
posted by naju at 2:00 PM on December 15, 2008

We just saw the largest offer in baseball history, $140 million, by the Yankees to CC Sabathia, the left-handed free-agent.

This isn't even close to being true. The largest is Alex Rodriguez's, and i think there are others higher than Sabathia's.
posted by Stylus Happenstance at 2:01 PM on December 15, 2008

Will the financial crisis spark a baby boom?

Same as it ever was...
posted by Halloween Jack at 2:02 PM on December 15, 2008

I bet they meant "largest for a pitcher."
posted by Stylus Happenstance at 2:02 PM on December 15, 2008

I have DEO stock. If the drinkers could all order top-shelf, I'd appreciate it. Heh.

NASCAR and the recession - coming from a racing family, may I just say that I hope everything the France family has done to fuck up racing for the last 20 years comes back to bite them all in their collective zillionaire asses. NASCAR destroyed stock car racing in this country and I hope it goes away and real stock cars make a come back.
posted by dejah420 at 2:42 PM on December 15, 2008

Blech. Used car dealers, on the West Coast at least, are tanking. That prediction is so far removed from reality that I seriously doubt the credibility of the other information.
posted by peppito at 3:03 PM on December 15, 2008

Don't worry Iceland, we're coming, and we're bringing a stack of our worthless dollars with us!
posted by 1adam12 at 6:26 PM on December 15, 2008

Poor Iceland. She never asked to be likened to the dregs of lipstick, beer, and Spam. Especially that last one...also honored with a capital letter, and probably now worth more than an entire country full of people. Proof that you can't compete with anything even related to bacon.
posted by iamkimiam at 10:56 PM on December 15, 2008

Oh yes hello!~

Wait. . . this isn't about WILT.
(I got a little excited when I saw the title of my blog in big grey letters)
posted by rubah at 11:38 PM on December 15, 2008

When the market goes up, that's a reason to drink. When the market goes down that's a reason to drink. It's a good business to be in.
posted by spacemarine1 at 12:00 AM on December 16, 2008