When the economy gets rough...

... economists get to work. Over-time. Interesting evening. I came back home from the office, changed into shorts and t-shirt, poured myself a nice glass of red wine, and got down to work with some gusto on my napoleonic cavalry. Telephone rings. Assuming it's my wife, I look for an excuse not to answer and keep painting. "I was at the grocery store" always works. Then I pick up the phone. [I always do, honey!] It's not my wife. It's a television channel. They want to come here, at my home, for an interview about the economic situation. I think of Nero Wolfe: he would never interrupts a session with his orchids for the press. But since this is what I am paid for, I agree. I stop painting, change again in business attire, refresh my memory about what is going on outside my 15mm world: first quarter GDP, +1%; Dow Jones Industrial Average, -3%; oil, $140 per barrel. And as soon as I am camera ready, the telephone rings again: there is a breaking news somewhere else, the reporter has been rerouted to the scene, interview postponed.
In the meanwhile, I lost momentum on those hussars.

Oh, the vagaries of the 24/24 economic news-cycle.