“I saw this guy speak today,” she said.  “They made a movie, and posted a big section of it on the website.  We should watch it.”

Innocently, I complied.

Now, when a movie advertises itself as being about the zombie apocalypse, or a witch hanging out in the woods, or a guy with an overdeveloped interest in chain saws, I expect to associate a certain level of fear with the film.  I can brace myself accordingly or (more likely) just avoid it altogether.

I had not expected a movie about economics to be pants-crappingly horrifying.  The image of the swelling US national debt, along with projections of where it’s heading, is frightening enough.   But when you couple that with the realization that debt payments have partially been funded by drawing on surplus Social Security, and that the aforementioned surplus is going to disappear pretty quickly as a whole lotta people get set to retire…

I spent much of last night trapped in fitful nightmares of a post-meltdown world that was curiously reminiscent of Fallout 3.

photo credit: i eated a cookie