Down with crab cakes! Ban Whole Foods! / On the ludicrous outcry against a brilliant, oddball CEO and his unfortunate opinion: “Keep in mind this is the guy who, not a couple years ago, announced he was cutting his personal salary down to $1 because he said he had plenty of money, didn’t need any more and merely wanted to continue working for the joy of it, and to help improve the world. Huh?”

Huh, indeed. Know who else makes $1 per year? Steve Jobs. And Larry Ellison, the world’s fourth richest man. Like Steve and Larry, John Mackey somehow manages to get by on his millions and millions in stock options.

Today feels a little bit like 9/11 to me. On that day, after watching the events unfold on television all morning I went out with my wife and 20 month old daughter. It was a beautiful day in Chicago. We walked to the playground just off Michigan Avenue, in the shadow of the Ritz-Carlton. The streets were quiet. The few people who were out acknowledged each other and the tragedy silently. At the playground I said hello to another dad there with his children and commented only on what a nice day it was. He agreed that it was beautiful weather. But everybody knew things had changed.

Today wasn’t like that. At my office, everyone I talked to was ambivalent if they had an opinion at all. I commented to a co-worker that the weather forecast was wrong. The clouds hadn’t broken all day. People know that things are bad but they are mostly concerned with how much all this government spending is going to ultimately cost them. Here’s some perspective on that.

Principled people of all stripes have argued that the bailout is wrong. A moral offense. I’m completely unconvinced. This is a good time set aside morals and principles and get some shit done. Others have argued, more convincingly, that it’s just a bad idea. I’m open to that. At this point, I’m hoping they are right.

P.S. When thinking of a title for this post “Econocalypse” just came to me. But I’m not the first one to use it!