The Way We Live Now: on three legs of a four-legged stool. The majority of the news is good! Retail is good. Prices are rising. Businesses are optimistic. So what if the last element is not in place? Wobbly's okay!

Feast your eyes upon this, recovery hounds: three good economic reports! Retail sales are up. The "Producer price index" is up, which, economists tell us, is good. And most importantly, the "small business optimism index" is up.

And why wouldn't it be? Everywhere your average small businessman turns, green shoots are literally overwhelming his or her field of vision to the point that they need some form of "Blue Blocker" sunglasses that instead block green (shoots)! The latest irresponsible and unaffordable tax breaks ensure that there is, at least, a modicum of hope that someone may one day be hired for a job at one of these very aforementioned small businesses. Which could be one of those mythical "win-win" situations, hypothetically. Furthermore, now that the OTB is dead, the nacho vendors at Aqueduct racetrack must be rubbing their palms in an anticipatory manner while anticipating all the sad old degenerate gamblers sure to come pouring in in person now, to play the ponies. And while our nation's patchwork "temporary" tax code may be a ticking time bomb economic nightmare in a macro sense, in a micro sense it's nothing that a qualified tax planner can't get you out of with some creative redefinition of "Cayman Islands residency."

I mean, airlines are making the majority of their money off of fees now. If that doesn't make a businessman optimistic, he can fuck right off.

We have the retail. We have the gambling money. And we have the outrageous fees. This recovery is falling into place. If we can just stop getting scammed by feckless firewood salesmen we'd be having a really good winter.

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