As an antidote to all the doom and gloom, here is Calculated Risk on how far the economy has gone in adjusting back towards normality.

Bryan Caplan writes:

[A]s a cock-eyed optimist, I'm very happy to have him around. Think about it: The world's most famous left-wing economist:

1. Blames European unemployment on labor market regulations that hold wages above the market-clearing level. (The Accidental Theorist, Part 1)

2. Publicly and articulately advocates free trade without hemming or hawing. (Pop Internationalism)

3. Identifies anti-globalization activists as the enemies of the world's poor. (The Accidental Theorist, Part 3)

4. Titles an essay "In Praise of Cheap Labor: Bad Jobs at Bad Wages Are Better than No Jobs at All" (The Accidental Theorist, Part 3)

Those are some "left-wing" economic beliefs I can get behind :).

His partisan hackery is, well, partisan hackery. But there's more to Krugman than that.

This sounds like a fun game. At least, playing the AI - I'd be a terrible Gatekeeper. I'd want to practice and think a bit first, though.

I've always wanted to visit Iceland, and their currency is collapsing. Maybe this is a good time?

Anyone else want to go?