From money geek to money chic: Recession t-shirts

There was a time, not that long ago, when knowing about the economy wasn't very cool. In those halcyon days, sporting a Greenspan for Pope t-shirt was likely to make you about as popular as a guy wearing Spock ears at a cheerleading camp. Today, however, we all know more about the economy; while that may sometimes be a little depressing, it has proven a major boon to the t-shirt industry.

Earlier today, a friend turned me on to a powerful little video about the current economic meltdown. Titled The Crisis of Credit, the ten-minute film explained, with impressive clarity, exactly how the U.S. has found itself in its current financial mess. Afterward, I was pondering how the film's creator, Jonathan Jarvis, hoped to make money off his opus when I noticed that he had linked to a Cafepress store where he was selling "Crisis of Credit" t-shirts. Available in white and green, the shirts featured an iconographic rendering of a family below the legend "Sub Prime."