An acquaintance just told me that a friend of his visited from a certain "bubble city" out West and told him tales of bubblemania. He said it was full of "two-thousandaires"--people with a Hummer and a Mercedes, a huge house, etc., etc, and $2000 in the bank. Of course, Southern Michigan, which is not experiencing a housing bubble (because no one wants to come here), is full of the same club members. Oftentimes what we witness is merely the proletariat taking part in the Fed's easy credit scheme, and living the luxury lifestyle on debt.

Last week I was in Palm Springs, a place I had visited twice in past years. The town has changed immensely and I was not prepared for what I observed. Besides the fact that we ended up getting directly caught up in the middle of a hold-up--a 20-year old meth head robbed a Starbucks--I came away with the notion that Palm Springs, once an uppity enclave and relaxing vacation spot, is now a haven for 80-pound meth heads, purple people eaters, and assorted other roving debris. Many of the fine, yuppity shops in the main downtown area have been replaced by t-shirt and cheap trinket shops. Four-star dining has been replaced by Quiznos. The town now caters to an entirely different sort of person, as the fine shops and fine people keep moving outward--away from the city's bustling center.

I never saw so many meth heads in one spot. There are more conversations between people and sign posts (or statues) in Palm Springs than perhaps any place I can think of, 'cept maybe West Hollywood. Mastercard and Visa are alive and well in that town. Sitting in the center of town, at the fountain, we observed the "cruisers" up and down the boulevard--in between listening in on all those person-to-signpost conversations. I never saw such bedraggled people driving such spectacular vehicles. Nearly half the cars were luxury cars--BMW, Mercedes, Lexus, etc.--and the other half were new imports or hopped-up domestics. The people in these cars were slovenly types that looked like they napped in gutters and under bridges. Palm Springs has truly become a freak show. The police are staked all over town, putting out one shit stir after another. I guess the days of seeing Khaki couples and women in beehives walking their pot-bellied pigs down Palm Canyon Drive are long gone.

The Palm Springs trash spectacle was a great scene to observe and take in, but it's a terrifying look at the ticking time bomb that America is becoming as the Fed fuels unsustainable household income-to-debt ratios all the way from the mansions to the ghetto. When the contraction--and/or hyperinflation--comes and the $25k per year crowd lose their gold jewelry and Hummers, look out.