Who Can You Trust?

(More) Recession Trend Spotting

If you want a friend in Washington . . . get a dog.

--President Harry Truman

To my mind, what's unique about this recession isn't just the damage to people's pocketbooks -- bad as that may be so far -- but to something more fundamental: their trust.

You don't have to have invested with Bernie Madoff to worry about getting "burned": today, the safety of your savings, the balance in your 401(k), even the food you buy is potentially suspect.

So who can you trust?

Yourself, for starters. You'd guess that that at least partly explains the appeal of vegetable gardens (Burpee seed sales: up 30% so far this year).

But maybe the question should also be "what can you trust?"

It might just be my imagination, but it seems like people are spending more of their (shrinking) disposable income on . . . pets.

You may not have much faith in Wall Street or Washington, but Fido (or Rover or Boots) will always be there for you.