Year in rebuke: econocataclysm

In the spring, the cost of rice increased by 30 percent, and food riots broke out in 30 countries. Prices fell later in the year, but the UN warned of another crisis looming due to the credit crunch.
In March, the Vatican identified seven social sins, including polluting the environment, contributing to the widening divide between rich and poor, excessive wealth, and creating poverty.

In the fall, as the Bush Administration lead the way into giving hundreds of billions of dollars to financial businesses too big to fail, McCain supporters fretted that Barack Hussein Obama would promote socialism.
News reports in the Spring said Zimbabwe's inflation rate was 23 million percent. An economist at the Cato institute estimated in November 2008 that Zimbabwe’s annual inflation rate had grown to 89.7 Sextillion percent.


Iceland, a country influenced by the neoconservative philosophy of economist Milton Friedman, has a flat income tax of 22.75 percent and a flat corporate tax rate of 18 percent. Iceland went bankrupt in October.