What do foreclosures and fortune cookies have in common?

Bob Prechter, innovator of the Elliott Wave Theory, has recently been promoting an interesting new field of sociology/economics called Socionomics. It is based on the idea that a society's arts and other cultural phenomena reflect its economic wellbeing. Prechter goes so far as to say that the themes represented in music, movies and other arts are directly influenced by the swings in the markets.

It seems to me, however, some of Prechter's findings suffer from simple data mining. For instance:


(Thanks, Dave)

But an article in today's New York Times introduces us to a new brand of fortune cookies that simply resonate too much with the current economic environment to be dismissed as coincidence:

(Socionomic translation: "Your Neg-Am mortgage just adjusted 500 basis points higher. Karma bites, man.")

(Socionomic translation: "Pray for spec profits but always be ready to send in the keys.")

I personally recommend that homeowners in distress stay away from Chinese restaurants for the forseeable future.
LIV