The New Abnormal

Mr. Homeowner, now that you've just finished your strategic default, what are you going to do?

"I'm going to Disney World!"

We just don't know what to do with ourselves.

As Bloomberg reported late last week, Americans are being schizophrenic in their spending habits throughout this recession, buying cheap toothpaste at the dollar store so that they can continue to buy $3 lattes at Starbucks.

In a nation where a giant shopping mall is a vacation destination and 70% of our GDP is made up of people buying things, it's easy to see why we are so desperate to spend. After all, it's how we're programmed to function.

The phenomenal sales of the iPad - a product that created a brand new need upon its release - is a perfect example. As the article showed, a gentleman who had just foreclosed on his condo purchased the new Apple product even though he had just lost thousands of dollars in wealth.

Of course, in a time of record profits coupled with crushing unemployment, all of these strange economic stories only verify what DotLoop already knows: the world is rapidly changing.