"'Suburban housing prices may not recover in our lifetime,' Shiller said, calling the development of suburbs since 1950 'unusual,' enabled only by the rise of the automobile and the nation's highway system."

When you see "taxes withheld" on your paycheck, you assume that money is going to the government. But in 16 states, large corporations like Sears, Ford, GE, Google, and Procter & Gamble are allowed to keep a portion of that money -- as pure profit.

In summary: people who have never had to work a retail-type job are generally spoiled brats.

Grow up, kids.

"Simply put, there has been a profound structural shift — a reversal of what took place in the 1950s, when drivable suburbs boomed and flourished as center cities emptied and withered."

"It’s interesting to me that the same consumer that will go to 7-11 and buy a bottle of Fiji Water for five dollars will go crazy and complain about a cup of coffee."

Re-examining the cause of the Great Depression—the revolution in agriculture that threw millions out of work—the author argues that the U.S. is now facing and must manage a similar shift in the “real” economy, from industry to service, or risk a tragic replay of 80 years ago.

"A winner-take-all society is not very conducive to hard work; I'm not going to bust my butt for 30 years for a 1% shot at getting into The 1%. But I am going to bust my butt for 30 years if I think this gives me a 90% chance of having a decent house, a family, some security, a reasonably pleasant job, a dog, and a couple of cars in my garage."

Long hours, low pay, and time away from family mean more trucking jobs are going unfilled, even in this time of high unemployment.

"Yellow grease, the proper name for cooking oil that's had the food and trash filtered out of it, is selling for about 40 cents a pound, almost five times what it was a decade ago. That means a gallon of yellow grease today sells for more than $3 a gallon — on par with a gallon of milk."

"Two Senators are preparing to introduce a bipartisan bill Thursday that would give residence visas to foreigners who spend at least $500,000 to buy houses in the U.S."

"At last year's company Halloween party, the employees of the law firm of Steven J. Baum dressed up as homeless people who the firm had brought foreclosure proceedings against."

"Thursday's legislation would have provided an immediate $50 billion investment in roads, bridges, airports and transit systems."

"In late August, contractors from DTE Energy began rolling through the streets, taking out two-thirds of the light poles."

"In Las Vegas, where the president made his announcement, about 30 counselors do foreclosure prevention in a city with 270,000 underwater properties. In Lakeland, Fla., it's one counselor for 59,000."

Answer: No. My proposition: Anyone who predicted the smoking ban would hurt businesses gets no input into solutions for the current economic downturn.

People who oppose goverment welfare programs don't necessarily believe they will ever be rich him/herself... they just don't want to end up in last place.

"Buying things locally for immediate gratification will be a premium service because it is far more efficient — in terms of inventory cost, real estate, staffing — to consolidate and fulfill merchandise at a distance."

Auto industry is claiming high fuel standards will kill jobs, yet the United Auto Workers union is in support of raising the standards.

Moral of the story: economic downturns are the best time to invest in infrastructure.