I should be pessimistic but I'm not...

You'd think when the world economy jumps off a cliff that one should be exceedingly pessimistic. But, somehow I'm not. Which isn't to say that I'm deluded, I understand that we're completely screwed for a good long while and that it comes towards the tail end (probably already over the breaking point) of when we really needed a lot of extra money to funnel into projects aiming to save the world. The world economy is going to collapse and the fossil fuels in the air are going to cause further catastrophic changes over the long haul. The food shortages in some areas are going to deepen as the droughts get worse and large populations are going to be displaced or die off.

It seems like it should somehow make me keel over, assume a fetal position and cry, but it doesn't. Maybe it simply hasn't hit home yet. 'Scourge the shire' and perhaps I'll fully understand how screwed we are. It just doesn't seem to be within my powers and so out of my concern. My simple view of life is that it goes on, even if it doesn't.

Why the Japanese should be fine in this recession.

See, if you read from right to left like the Japanese do, then it looks like we're gaining jobs at a record pace.