Brace Yo'self

Asian Inflation Begins to Sting U.S. Shoppers - New York Times

I've been whining about this for months, so it's interesting and kind of gratifying to finally see it in the Times. Americans have been living in a bubble of price distortion for way too long, and it will be interesting to see the fall-out.

Personally, I'm really looking forward to a turn away from over-sized SUV's and McMansions. The glorification of gluttony here is disgusting. But, it will be equally interesting to see how this affects the business and living decisions of China and the smaller Southeast Asian countries. A decrease in oil consumption could have some very profound positive effects - unless, of course, they just burn more coal. Um um I was trying to keep this short because I have to go read some contemporary French literature, so I'm just going to bullet-point my train of thought:

- Neo-liberal economics: actually zero-sum?
- How is this affecting US-owned MNC's?
- Wages & labor: turn back to regional production/consumption economics?
- Blame Bush