651,000

I think the thing that pisses me off the most about The Current Economic Unpleasantness is that in every American History or Economics class I ever took in high school or college, and there were plenty of them, they told me that when it came to The Great Depression, it couldn't’t possibly happen again: That the lessons of the 1930’s had been learned; That safeguards had been put in place; That there would never again be a Wall Street Crash; That the banks were safe. If I heard it once I heard it 50 times. I wonder how many times I dutifully recorded this wisdom while I was hunched over a notebook. (I was not the best student ever, but I did take copious notes). And it was all bullshit, every single word of it.

Of course, it should be noted that when I was taking up a space in the “Ivy-covered halls” referred to in my schools lovely Alma Mater, the Glass-Steagall Act was still the law of the land. So maybe I have to cut those teachers, professors and graduate assistants some slack.

But it was galling nonetheless when I came across the following this morning:

“It has been 513 calendar days since the stock market peaked on Oct. 9, 2007. Since then, the S.&P. 500 is down 56 percent and the Dow is off 53 percent.

On Jan. 29, 1931 — the identical number of days after the 1929 market peak — the S.&P. 500 was down 49 percent and the Dow was down 56 percent. The 1929 crash got off to a much faster start, but we have now more or less caught up.”

Since I got the above off the internets (and we all know how that can go) and since I’m too lazy to Google it myself, I don’t know if the above is true or not but I do seem to recall a 13,000-point Dow and it seems to be it’s around 6,500 these days so the citation seems about right to me.

And now we learn that 651,000 more Americans lost their jobs last month. Fuck me. The national unemployment rate goes to 8.1 percent. At last report, here in Michigan the percentage was 11.6.

I told you last time out about playing hockey with those guys from Visteon, all of whom had either lost or were about to lose their jobs. Visteon was down to two cents/share yesterday before trading on their stock was stopped. GM reported they may have to file for bankruptcy after all.

I was in the waiting room at the chiropractors yesterday and the receptionist was talking about her 57-year-old husband being out of work and how COBRA was going to cost her $12,000 a year but she had found a Blue Cross plan that would only cost $7,500. Of course, it did not cover doctor visits or prescriptions. The woman she was talking to was out of work, too. So was her husband.

With that as a backdrop, I want you to watch this idiot:

It’s Friday and that means it’s time to go play hockey. It’s going to be a great skate. Somebody is going to take a shot from the point and it’s going to hit a stick or a skate on the way to the net and I’ll find myself reacting to the change in direction even before the thought has formed in my mind that I have to stick my leg out or shoot my glove hand in the air. That’s what I like best about it. I won’t be thinking about any of this crap and when I’m done my hockey underwear will be as wet as it would be if I’d jumped into a pool while wearing it and the endorphins will be pumping and I’ll feel terrific. And then I’m going to come home and write something about sports. Something great. See you then…