Welcome to the Best of the Left Podcast with clips today from Slate Podcasts, Maran

vs. Sido, Ring of Fire, The Onion Radio News, The Limbaugh Live, The Day, The Daily Show,

The Uncle Report, On the Media, and The Young Turks.

Right about now, most businesses are trying to work out how the customers are likely to respond

to the recession. Looking back to the last really nasty recession, the early 1980s,

isn't much help for low-cost airlines, cell phone companies, internet retailers,

producers of organic and fair trade food, and many other businesses barely imagined

at the dawn of the Reagan era. The economy has simply changed too much since then for

experience to be a reliable guide. In the United Kingdom, we're blessed with tabloid

newspapers to explain what's going on. Apparently, sales of aphrodisiacs are up,

and so are sales of maternity dresses. Not everything slumps downward in tough times it seems.

El McPherson's underwear is said to be doing well, so too is a budget store called Poundland.

Some stories are frankly bizarre. The crunch is alleged to have given a philip to sales of cake,

wooden gravestones, musicals, and feel-good films. The quality press has not resisted the

temptation to join in the guessing game. My own newspaper The Financial Times found evidence

that physiotherapists were in demand to perk up stressed investment bankers.

All this speculation is an engaging diversion, but it tells us little.

Even the more solid reports are often based on anecdotes, many are simply spin or wishful thinking.

I've heard a food retailer muse that fair trade branded goods are recession proof,

because once people have seen the light about the importance of fair trade, they never turn back.

A travel industry expert told me that the worst things get, the more people feel in need of a

vacation. Perhaps he's right. I wouldn't bet on it. I doubt that these early reports will tell

...