This stencil pasted onto an electrical box is located on Main Street in downtown Carrboro, NC. I am holding one corner down because it started peeling off (see below to view without my finger).

I love the smart people in my town who are making public art regarding immediate concerns, even though I don’t know who they are.

It’s the economy, stupid. An article in The Economist points to four major factors contributing to the looming US recession which is already affecting so many Americans: housing prices, credit, food & fuel prices, and unemployment.

On the first issue, housing, it is estimated that millions of Americans will lose their homes due to sub-prime mortgages. According to the BBC, one in ten houses in my former home of Cleveland, OH is now vacant. It may be useful to consider the parties responsible for this crisis: many people are pointing to Alan Greenspan’s (mis)handling of interest rates as Fed chairman, while Housing Secretary Alphonso Jackson, who leaves office this week, encouraged sub-prime lending.

On food and fuel prices: oil prices reached a record high this Wednesday at $115/barrel, while food prices are affecting school lunch menus in US schools. The US economic slowdown has had a ripple effect throughout the world, as political and economic leaders acknowledge food prices have reached “emergency proportions” in developing countries.

Yes, this is all quite sobering news. For some much-needed comic relief, I turn to The Majesticons’ 2003 album “The Beauty Party,” a satiric, melodic hip-hop exploration into lifestyles of the rich and fabulous: “Alan Greenspan, get your hands up! Billy Gates, get your hands up!”