lifestyle leader

Dan Drezner has an interesting piece in Foreign Policy magazine on thirteen unexpected consequences of the financial crisis. It makes for some nice light Friday reading. A couple of comments:

- Evidence for #4 is provided by the FPs own annoying pop-up as you link to the page.

- I flatter myself to think #1 explains my new job, precisely for the reasons he outlined. It was either that, or #8, or going back to school.

- I'm very curious to see if #6 holds true. It probably will, at least for a while. But it's worth noting that the cautious savers of the past decade got hit just as hard as everyone else. At the very least, those who have come into "intellectual maturity" just in time to watch The Great Moderation dissolve before their eyes will be more cautious about future claims regarding the "self-regulation" of financial markets.

- With #7, Dan seems to be supporting my crank theory of fashion (which, not coincidentally, also appeared on a Friday)

- I hope #13 holds true as well; it certainly can't hurt. At the very least, if people are more aware of the examples of individual and collective suffering during that period, it will help put our current state of affairs in perspective.

Try, for example, this set of interviews broadcast on This American Life a couple of months back (see Act 1: Hard Times). If I went through something similar, I don't think I'd be able to eat mustard anymore either.

[Update: another unexpected consequence? A decline in shark attacks.]