Oh Yeah, Well You Can't Get Falafel on the Street for $4 in Omaha. Am I right people??

It's not very often that my home state gets mentioned in any form of media that's not football or agriculture related.

However, every so often, the pages (in this case virtual) of a big city periodical will make a smidgen of room for the state that founded Arbor Day.

Daily Intel makes the point that things aren't so bad in fly-over country, especially with regard to unemployment. Nebraska actually ticked downward last month to 4.2%! The recovery is on!

Oh but wait...the boom was never really over or even going on for that matter. That's a major point of the post. Lots of the flyover states don't have investment bankers or luxury condos on beachfront property so things just aren't hurting as much...Most people in Nebraska would probably say "duh" (or perhaps "der") to this news but any press is good press Huskerinos, even in the blogosphere.

The Downturnaround Is Long Nebraska [Daily Intel]

Huskers Football/Bad Economy - Coincidence?

So it turns out that last Monday was just a warm up.  

As I write this the Dow Jones Industrial Average is down over 700 points (again).  It is currently trading below 10,000 for the first time since 2004.  The NASDAQ is down over 8% and the S&P 500 is down over 7.5%.

Over the weekend I got a request to talk about the Nebraska Cornhuskers and they're seemingly unending mediocrity as a football team.  The Huskers continued this trend this past Saturday with an painful performance against their longtime rivals, the Missouri Tigers, losing 52-17.

Not so long ago, the Huskers dominated the annual matchup with Missouri, winning every year from 1979 to 2002 and leading the overall series 63-36-3.  However, the tables have turned of late with Missouri winning the last two seasons and 3 out of the last 4 matches.

Ok - so you're asking yourself, what the hell does Nebraska football have to do with the Greatest Depression?

If you recall, the last Huskers National Championship was in 1997.  This, along with the Huskers' back to back titles in 1994 and 1995 was the culmination of Tom Osborne's tenure as head coach.  At this point in our country's history, we also were enjoying an unprecedented run in the stock market year over year, eventually slowing down in the beginning of 2000.

2001 was the last time Nebraska played in a National Championship game and for some fans, marks the beginning of the team's dominance in the Big 12 and on the national scene.

Now we find ourselves not only in economic strife but chronic Husker mediocrity.  The timing is a little uncanny if you ask me.

So, Bo Pelini, the pressure is on.  Two weeks in a row, Nebraska has failed to rise to the occasion and two weeks in a row, the United States markets have plunged.  Hank Paulson and Ben Bernanke would do well to convince coach Pelini how crucial the success of the Huskers is to our national and the world markets.

Personally, the Huskers look a long way off from the dominance they once knew.  Could be our economy is in the same boat.