A Turkey Day report from Forbes. "According to the American Farm Bureau, the price of a Thanksgiving dinner for 10 is actually 44 cents less than last year. Affordable food prices represent good news for American consumers as we start the holiday season. Adding to the good news for home owners, housing prices are up about 6% across the country. Many Americans will feel a little bit wealthier this holiday season as their biggest asset has appreciated and costs – for Turkey at least – stay low."

"Ironically, falling prices are exactly what central bankers around the world are trying to avoid. The immediate focus is on keeping rates low to stimulate the economy, increase growth and reduce unemployment."

"Using prices for chicken as a stand-in for turkey, I compared prices for cities around the country. There is clearly a huge difference in the prices that families will pay for their Thanksgiving dinner across the country. These changes show differences in cost of living between cities. Many of the cities that have had high annual home price appreciation also had high prices for chicken. Prospective homebuyers in these areas may feel the opposite side of the wealth effect, as both housing and food are increasing rapidly at the same time."

New York Magazine. "Your family's conversation at Thanksgiving dinner will probably begin with fairly innocent topics, and move on to slightly more serious ones. But the overwhelming odds are that, sometime between the second helping of turkey and the pumpkin pie, someone at your Thanksgiving table will bring it up: the economy. Lucky for you, when your Uncle Chad (and it's always Uncle Chad) starts talking about the stock market, the deficit, or Ben Bernanke's money-printing machine, these handy talking points will help."

"The subject: Quantitative easing ("QE"). The one-minute summary: Since the financial crisis, the Federal Reserve (the money-think place in Washington) has been boosting the economy by buying a lot of stuff from banks. That program is called quantitative easing. It's been pushing stock markets to all-time highs, and it's made a lot of people on Wall Street very rich. It's probably going to end soon."

"What Uncle Chad will say: 'The markets are addicted to easy money, and Ben Bernanke just keeps printing, printing, printing. We're going to get massive inflation and the dollar will become worthless. You'll see, it'll be the Weimar Republic all over again.' Is he wrong? Yes. There has been no significant inflation since the end of the financial crisis, despite the dire warnings of Bernanke haters. And while QE hasn't worked perfectly, it's helped keep unemployment from rising to Depression-era levels."

"Say this to end the argument: 'You know, Uncle Chad, you're right. The dollar is being totally debased by all this reckless money printing. Hey, how's your gold fund doing these days?'"

"The subject: Wall Street greed. The one-minute summary: Wall Street banks break the law sometimes, and are generally greedy. What Uncle Chad will say: 'If Eric Holder and his cronies actually did their job, all these crooks would be in jail.'"

"Is he wrong? Not totally. There was a lot of bad behavior on Wall Street this year. (As in every other year.) But this has been a historic year in terms of punishing Wall Street misdeeds. Eric Holder wrung a $13 billion settlement out of JPMorgan Chase for mortgage fraud – the largest corporate settlement in history. Hedge funds are pleading guilty to insider trading. And while it's true that no major bank executives went to jail over the financial crisis, the new chair of the SEC, Mary Jo White, is taking a tougher approach to busting financial crimes than her predecessors."

"Say this to end the argument: 'Unfortunately for Eric Holder, it's not against the law to be stupid.'"

The Housing Bubble Blog on November 26, 2008. From the comments, "Comment by 2banana 2008-11-26. 'I am buying with three small kids (so flame away). However, it is either cash or credit card that will be paid in full when the January bill comes in. I can not understand people who go into debt for Christmas and take 5-6 months to pay it off (and I do know people like that).'

"Also - something we all do as a family is 'buy' gifts from the Samaritans Purse (like a well or medical supplies for a village). It is very interesting what the kids 'buy' with their own money. Sometimes it is very surprising (like they use all their money they saved for other things for this). Maybe that is the best present of all."

"Comment by Olympiagal, 2008-11-26.

‘I can not understand people who go into debt for Christmas and take 5-6 months to pay it off (and I do know people like that).’"

"I know people like that, too. Crazy, innit? But HERE’S even a worser and crazier thing: a few years ago I worked with a girl who was getting a divorce after 3 years of marriage and, get this, part of the terms they were arguing over was who had to keep paying off the bills for their…wedding. Huh? Huh?
Wow."

"Comment by Olympiagal, 2008-11-26. 'Tell us about your newborn, Muggy. Is it cute? Are you training it to be a good future HBBer? Can it say ‘Mama, dadda, loan-to-value ratio’, and stuff like that?'"

"Comment by Olympiagal, 2008-11-26. 'I come from a giant clan of exuberant Christmas-lovers. And I do mean ‘giant’; I’m from Mormon Land, also known as Utarr, and they take that advice from Sweet Baby Jeebus to ‘multiply and replenish the earth’ seriously. Lessee, I’ve got 67 cousins on my dad’s side. I forget how many on my mom’s side. I don’t pay attention to that side anyhow, as them’s boring. They all still have all their fingers, no scars, and few jail-house and/or homemade tattoos, for instance. And, for some reason, most of them have grown up to be dentists. Odd. I think that’s odd. Don’t you guys think that’s odd?'"

"'I mean, that’s a lot of dentists. I bothered to show up to one of their reunions and everyone was peering inside each other’s heads.
Outta there!"

"My point is: we love Christmas! Christmas! Christmas! *sits up straight and emits a mighty whoop from the festive Olylungs*"

"And yes, that would be first cousins. And ’bout near every single one of us has got mighty lungs, a translucent hide, a fondness for misbehaving and for trees, and a desire to see what happens if you poke something, anything, who cares what it is, with a stick. These would appear to be what Mendel termed ‘dominant traits’."

"Hahahaha! That seems funny to me, for some reason."

"Ahhhh, family… I can’t wait to see them all. And to argue with them all. Maybe I’ll argue alphabetically this year. I suspicion I missed a few arguments last year, in the hurly-burly."