http://slyoyster.com

Sort of.  But with oil prices on the world market plummeting in recent months, the hotness of Dubai has begun to cool.  Housing property prices are down 50%, banks arem’t lending money for extravagant construction projects and in progress projects aren’t getting finished. The country has loads of per capita debt, it’s leveraged out it’s ears and without oil revenue there isn’t anyway to pay for anything.

[Dubai Goes Bust via Darkroasted Blend]

CXO found that Cramer’s stock market predictions (monitored from 2000 onward) were worse than average and even worse than simply flipping a coin. Cramer’s prognostications fared better than the market averages only 47 percent of the time. Regarding Cramer’s predictions, CXO comments that, “His predictions sometimes swing dramatically from optimistic to pessimistic, and back again, over short periods. It is difficult to infer his guiding valuation theory, if he has one. We wonder whether he tends to be swayed by the arguments of forceful advocates with whom he most recently interacted…He seems more a stream of uncalibrated opinion than a stock market maven.” [Consumerist]

For these uncertain times, people need something to turn to for hope.  It’s not Obama, as it turns out.

In “Praying for Recession: The Business Cycle and Protestant Religiosity in the United States,” David Beckworth, an assistant professor of economics at Texas State University, looked at long-established trend lines showing the growth of evangelical congregations and the decline of mainline churches and found a more telling detail: During each recession cycle between 1968 and 2004, the rate of growth in evangelical churches jumped by 50 percent. By comparison, mainline Protestant churches continued their decline during recessions, though a bit more slowly.

It’s odd that the correlation is between evangelical congregations, as opposed to say, any old religious church.  And I wonder if there are any other factors leading to this relationship.

Here is the full story.  Here is the paper.  Here is earlier discussion from Mark Thoma’s.  Here is David Beckworth’s blog.  [via]

As Clusterflock points out cigarettes often become currency, which is not surprising.  What is surprising is how developed the economic structure of a prison camp can become.  It acts as a microcosm for society at large with people occupying niches, many things are purchased on credit, stores were opened.

The permanent camps in Germany saw the highest level of commercial organization. In addition to the Exchange and Mart notice boards, a shop was organized as a public utility, controlled by representatives of the Senior British Officer, on a no profit basis. People left their surplus clothing, toilet requisites and food there until they were sold at a fixed price in cigarettes. Only sales in cigarettes were accepted – there was no barter – and there was no higgling. For food at least there were standard prices: clothing is less homogeneous and the price was decided around a norm by the seller and the shop manager in agreement; shirts would average say 80, ranging from 60 to 120 according to quality and age. Of food, the shop carried small stocks for convenience; the capital was provided by a loan from the bulk store of Red Cross cigarettes and repaid by a small commission taken on the first transactions. Thus the cigarette attained its fullest currency status, and the market was almost completely unified.

There are price fixing scandals and alternate currencies besides cigarettes, there were middlemen and shortages.  It seems as if this type of prisoner camp portrayal would be infinitely more interesting - the camp as a living, breathing economical organism - than how it is categorically portrayed in the movies.  The prisoner camp is a character in and of itself.

But, according to the Dallas Morning News, because of eroding economic conditions in the states, more illegal immigrants are crossing the border back into Mexico.? Which, I suppose, is one way to handle the illegal immigrant problem - just create economic conditions poor enough to make them want to go back home.

Well played President Bush, well played.

Two hours were enough for Jos? Luis S?nchez and his family to pack their most valuable belongings in two vans ? items accumulated in 10 years of living in the Dallas area.

With his wife, children and their suitcases in place, Mr. S?nchez closed the door of his Mesquite apartment for the last time, sat at the wheel of one of the vehicles ? his brother drove the other ? and hit the road back to his homeland.

So ended his decade-long adventure as an illegal Mexican immigrant in the United States.

According to Mexican consulate officials in Dallas, some 400 immigrant families have told them so far this year that they’re going back to Mexico and asked for transfer documents to enroll their children in Mexican schools.

Enrique Hubbard Urrea, Mexican consul general in Dallas, said it is impossible to track every Mexican who leaves the area. But he said the number asking for transfer documents at the consulate is on the rise.

In 2005, the consulate issued 162 such documents; in 2006 it was 199; and last year it was 270. At the current rate, more than twice as many people will leave this year as last, he said.

“There is no doubt the trend indicates that the number is growing,” Mr. Hubbard said.

This isn’t just happening along the Texas border, however.? It’s happening in places such as Chicago and Phoenix.? I’d make a joke but this is just sorta sad.? Where do we, as a country, go from here when we aren’t even good enough for our illegal immigrants?? That’s not supposed to be funny, though it is sort of a laugh or I’d cry kind of situation.