Nate Silver has a piece up with some rather "sobering" news in it. (Get it? Ha ha ha me so funny.) It seems that beer consumption was way down in the 4th quarter of 2008 as the full effects of the current recession and financial meltdown kicked in.
But something was very, very different in the fourth quarter of 2008. Sales of alcohol for off-premises consumption were down by 9.3 percent from the previous quarter, according to the Commerce Department. This is absolutely unprecedented: the largest previous drop had been just 3.7 percent, between the third and fourth quarters of 1991.
Beer accounts for almost all of the decrease, with revenues off by almost 14 percent. Wine and spirits were much more stable, with sales volumes declining by 1.6 percent and 0.9 percent respectively.
So it is time for all beer drinkers to do their patriotic duty and drink more beer! Microbreweries are your best bet as they are still American owned (unlike most of the macrobrewers) and will put money into small businesses that need some stimulus of their own. In other words, go get drunk! You can worry about your dwindling savings and investments after you sober up. But, please save this vital American industry.
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