It’s Black Friday, the day when retailers have big sales and the news media will report on American shoppers getting into fistfights and trampling fellow citizens into the dust in their ludicrous zeal to get the advertised deals.
I hate shopping generally, and Black Friday sounds especially horrible. So, today I’ll be staying as far away from the shopping as I can, and listening to Steely Dan’s take on Black Friday to further improve my mood.
When Black Friday comes
I’m gonna dig myself a hole
Gonna lay down in it ’til
I satisfy my soul
In this corner, a ragtag band of “Occupy Wall Street” protesters with a bad case of “bed head.” They’re scruffy, angry, and utterly convinced of the righteousness of their cause. 
But the shoppers aren’t listening! They’ve formed a flying wedge of shopping carts handled by angry plus-sized women who want to take advantage of the big Black Friday sales! They’re ramming the Occupy protesters. Wait just a minute! Some of the shoppers have fainted from that special “Occupy” odor! And the “Occupiers” are demanding free stuff from the shoppers!
I imagine that this year Black Friday is getting even more attention than usual. Economists, analysts, and forecasters will want to find out whether people are shopping at all, and if so where and for what. In our consumer-driving economy, if Americans aren’t diving into the Christmas shopping season with gusto the talking heads will say it shows a “lack of consumer confidence” and signals a longer and perhaps deeper recession. There is something to this line of reasoning. You can do all the surveys you want about consumer confidence, but whether people actually spend money during the season of spending is the best, most tangible evidence of what they actually believe about their own circumstances.
