Signs of the Recession

I enjoy listening to a podcast called 'This American Life' as I walk to and from campus each day. If you have a Zune, Ipod, or even just an MP3 player, it's a pretty good hour-long show that gets updated every week. Here is a list of some of their favorite shows that you can listen to from the internet; the 'Ghost of Bobby Dunbar' is very eye-opening, along with 'Giant Pool of Money'; also any show with an act from David Sedaris will definitely be funny! This week's show is titled 'Scenes from a Recession.' Here are a couple of facts that they listed at the beginning of the show:

• Dentists are reporting an increase of cracked teeth from grinding teeth - this is a transient condition that is often associated with stress
• Eurologist have reported a rise in vasectomies
• Traffic delays dropped by 1/3 last year
• 2 women in Pennsylvania - in separate incidents - robbed banks and then immediately used the money to buy cashier's checks to pay for their rent
• Porn sales are down 10 - 30%
• Shark attacks are at their lowest point in 5 years - people aren't vacationing as much and hence less people in the ocean to feed the sharks

Short list, but I thought it was pretty interesting.