Interesting. Was at the outlet stores at the 5 and 6 minute mark of that video on black Monday in the fall of 2008. Every one of those stores was packed at that time. It was well into the depths of the last crash.....and I have to admit, some killer deals that day.

I introduced my 5 y-o daughter to the movie E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial recently.

I don't think I had seen it since I was a kid and it was in the theatres. What really caught my eye this time around was the setting -- a soul-crushing instant California sprawl suburb.

And on careful inspection, the Cali suburb of E.T. isn't all that bad compared to today. The houses are still on lots with a little wiggle room. It hasn't become completely hammered out yet like the tracts of the late Housing Bubble.

These places have no future.