Print newspaper layoffs and home foreclosures are an everyday event. So there are a bunch of unemployed journalists and idle real estate agents. We smell a crime wave.

Even celebrity gossip is on a tight rope. According to Salon.com the golden era has passed:

And two weeks ago, venerable gossip Liz Smith ended one of her syndicated newspaper columns by quoting a producer of a celebrity-driven television show as observing, "There's nothing going on in celebrity land. There's no news, no gossip, no scandal. The Oscars showed how dull things are. People are only interested in politics."

Three years ago, at the height of the celebrity weekly craze, there were eight titles battling to break news about Lindsay Lohan's late nights or Kevin Federline's Vegas vacations. At least two of those magazines -- Celebrity Living and Inside TV -- have folded. And according to Audit Bureau of Circulations statistics, sales of four others -- In Touch, Life & Style, Star and People -- leveled off or declined in the second half of 2007. Only US Weekly -- chronicler of Obama and his underwear -- and OK! continued to grow.

"Chronicler of Obama in his underwear" will proudly be in someone's obituary some day. We look forward to it.

But not even those that cover politics can muster up the concern for the final days of the Bush presidency.

From Politico:

Fewer than half the seats were filled in the White House briefing room that Thursday afternoon, when deputy press secretary Tony Fratto was even asked at one point if an upcoming economic speech by Bush would provide anything newsworthy.

"No," Fratto replied, "you shouldn't look for new major announcements tomorrow." Some laughter and grumbling followed among the press corps.