Introducing Billiard Pigs–the first in our line of long-overdue limited-edition screen-printed posters.

The screen-printing process produces a final product that is of much higher quality than digital printing methods and feels more like a piece of art.

Our posters are printed with organic water based ink on heavy duty, acid free archival paper.

Paying at the 7/11 counter for my small columbian dark roast coffee, i happen to notice the ever present “Penny Tray”. Located at many retail counters across our great country, i often take this tray for granted, after all, the penny is worthless.

It is estimated that there are anywhere between 140 and 200 billion pennies currently in circulation. That equates to between 1.4 and 2 billion worthless dollars our there, sitting in penny trays!

The penny should be taken out of circulation. Collect them all and give some money to Haiti recovery and other valuable causes.

And then my coffee came to $2.01. I’ve got 2 one’s and 3 twenty’s. I find myself relieved to see 3 dull pennies in the tray.

What began in 1979 as a small circus wagon-themed box with a hamburger, French fries and toy inside – and a high fructose corn syrup-soaked soda on the side – has evolved into a high-powered marketing tool and, at times, a not-so-happy hot plate of national controversy.

Naturally, the Happy Meal has caught beef from health advocacy groups for contributing to today’s spiraling childhood obesity rates. No less an authority than the Centers for Disease Control claims that since the Happy Meal first hit the market, that rate has ballooned from 4.2% to 17%. Of course, they also note that the original Happy Meal had just 600 calories and little was understood about nutrition back then.

So after 30 years, billions of Happy Meals and thousands of debates, the Happy Meal is still going strong. In fact, McDonald’s even has a director of nutrition now, and she claims that a version of the Happy Meal that offers four-piece McNuggets, “caramel apple dippers” and 1% milk clocks in at just 375 calories. I’ll take 3 please!

The pipes had rusted. The growth had stopped. And soon, our economy was as bone dry as the deadwood of the subprime mortgages that fueled its bloom. Then, the rot went Global, and people all across the world were left wondering how to untangle themselves from its roots.

This powerful new tee design from American Pig Brand hauntingly illustrates this great financial error of our era, all the way down to the bones.

Of course, it’s just one of the many thought-provoking and colorful entrants in the APB collection of streetwear, urban-inspired t-shirts, clothing and accessories.

There’s no question today’s world is a confusing and volatile place. The double-edged sword of technology connects us all, yet makes it that much easier for someone to end it all with the push of a button. The global cash and credit crunch has people feeling on edge, worrying about just what the future will bring.

This fresh new tee design from American Pig Brand recognizes the volatility of our times, illustrating the world as one big grenade just primed for explosion.

It’s just one of the many provocative and stylish pieces available in the APB collection of streetwear, urban-inspired t-shirts, clothing and accessories.

Don’t just take our word for it. Check it out for yourself. While there’s still time.

No, European Fashion Guru Bruno wasn’t on hand for this momentous occasion, but a Prague photoshoot did turn some heads and win some converts.

As you can see, the entire collection of APB (American Pig Brand) streetwear, urban-inspired t-shirts, clothing and accessories is now available at apbclothing.cz.

Of course, the Prague shop isn’t the only international American Pig Brand location. We also have e commerce stores in the UK (apbclothing.co.uk) and Mexico (apbclothing.mx). That’s right…this Pig ain’t just American anymore!

This colorful, flashy tee honors the legacy of the “King of Pop” by recreating the iconic “Zipper Jacket” Michael wore in the groundbreaking video for “Beat It”. The song was one of several hits on “Thriller”, the best-selling album of all time with as many as 109 million copies issued worldwide. The album also won a record eight Grammys in 1984, and is widely considered one of the most important and inspired albums in music history.

We won’t be issuing close to that many copies of this tee, which features silver foil inlays that appear to be real metal at first glance. It’s a fitting tribute for an artist who redefined the way we look at and listen to pop music.

Available in RED OR BLACK

I’d be lying if I said I didn’t have tears in my eyes during McCain’s concession speech and again a little while later during Obama’s acceptance speech. Watching McCain was like watching a great athlete playing in his final game before retirement; sure you feel badly for him, but he was playing against the team you root for, and well…

Obama. Obama’s speech will, without question, stand together in history alongside Dr. King’s ‘I have a dream’ and Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. From the very moment he appeared on stage, there was feeling of transcendence in the air. That by simply watching it we were becoming part of something great, something with much more longevity than ourselves.

America, perhaps? Freedom? Hope? Inspiration? All of the above?

The journey to the Whitehouse was long and difficult. But it is complete. This is the moment we’ll be talking about for generations to come; when We the People, finally turned our back on our vicious and, frankly, embarrassing past, and, standing together with ghosts of Ol’ Abe Lincoln and the Reverend King, said, we, the United States, the most perfect Union, have finally reached a place where men are, indeed, not judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.

The Inaugural on January 21st, 2009 is the icing the cake.

Now, all that said, if we want these dusty ole Chimes of Freedom to start ringing for us pitch-perfect, we have a lot of work to do. Winning the Presidency was only the beginning. Do not become content. Do not become complacent. Do not settle in and wait for the system to work for you; the system is broken. And simply electing, finally, someone who may be the most inspirational President since Kennedy, is a good start, but my friends, it ain’t the answer.

In other words, it’s time to roll up your sleeves. We have work to do.

That means me. And that means you.

For there’s a battle outside, and it’s raging.

Schell

First, a little history.

October 9th, 2007. The Dow Jones Industrial reached it’s highest (non-inflation adjusted) point ever, somewhere around the 14,000 mark. Everyone is happy. Everyone is excited. Even the beggars are lighting cigars with hundred dollar bills. Needless to say, it’s a good time to not only be an investor, but to be an American. We’re back in the game, as the saying goes.

Well, with the Dow so ridiculously high, some people who’ve never before invested in the stock market take a look at such a run and say to themselves, “that’s it. This is the year that I finally invest. I want my piece of this American Pie!”

So, they, I mean, me, I mean I, find a broker and with eager hands and dollar signs in my eyes, invest a somewhat significant amount of money into some stock. All I had to do now was sit back and wait. The returns would come rolling in. Do I want the blue yacht or the yellow yacht, I remember thinking to myself.. Hell, with the amount of money I was destined to make, I’ll get them both! I’ll even get the chopper to fly from one to the other!

Honestly, it couldn’t have been more than a day. Perhaps even a few hours after my money was unleashed unto The Market when something strange, but not entirely unpredictable began to happen.

The Market, fresh off it’s highest point ever, began to slowly sink. It was not unlike those old episodes of The Price is Right. The Yodeler kept going up, higher and higher, higher and higher, until finally (with my money freshly infused) he reached the point where he could go no further. Pausing if only to offer up but a moment’s final hope. Then he, and the Market along with him, came crashing down.

Deeper and deeper it went, soon 14k was gone. 13k, 12k, 11k, gone. All wiped clean. Panic had set it. People were screaming in the streets. Billions of dollars in value erased just like that. Surely, I thought, this is just a bump, a blip, a burp in the system. In a few days everything will capitulate and I’ll be back at the Lambo dealer giving an answer on which set of custom leather seats I wanted to go with. Surely, this decline could not, as the analysts were saying, have much more to go before it reached a bottom and began to turn around.

It was somewhere between 8k and 7k that I realized the power that I held over everything. Imagine, I had only put in a small, seemingly insignificant amount of money in the Market. What if I had put in more? Could I bring down the entire planet? Could I, a la Dr. Evil, hold the entire world at bay while the G8 leaders scrambled to meet my demands before I injected another, somewhat more significant amount of money and watched, laughing, while the world’s economies all came crashing down around us? It was the perfect plan {insert maniacal laugh}.

What? What’s that you say? The worlds economies are crashing down around us? And it’s likely that I had nothing to do with it?

Hm. Well. This is going to take some reconsideration.

While I mull this over, here are some helpful stock tips to get you through to the next Bull Market.

1 - Beer Manufacturers - though I prefer a cool Sam Adams, the companies that are going to be doing well are the ones that don’t charge too much for their ‘product.’ Look for your Natty Lights, Pabsts, and Keystones to make a showing. When the economy is in decline, quality and taste soon go with it.

2 - The Essentials - People have to eat. And they have to, uh, you know. Look for companies that make products to take care of both ends.

3 - Low-End Dining - Same theory as #1. For the price of a nice dinner at a decent restaurant somewhere downtown, you could eat for a month at one of the low-end dining houses. And though the food might not be good (or even food), in these tough economic times, we all have to make sacrifices. Besides, tapeworms are more than just a vintage weight loss plan, they’re friends, too.

4 - Self-Defense Companies - When the economy goes down, crime goes up. It’s Newton’s third law, I think. Look for companies that not only manufacture things that shoot, but companies that manufacture things that can be thrown (guns and ammo are expensive, bricks and baseballs are not).

5 - Medical/Pharmaceutical Companies - An obvious choice, no?

6 - Companies that don’t have you for an employee - Sitting in the cube, watching the world melt away, it’s easy enough to see that, if world leaders and economic theorists can’t get it right, the chances of your boss having got it right are pretty slim. If you work there, the writing is on the wall, the company is doomed for collapse. The trick is to find some happy employees, the mysterious minority, and try to get a job with them (or for them). It’s an impossibility for sure, but with all the free time you now have, what else is there to do?

7 - Start your own company - People are afraid. And when they’re afraid, they’ll believe anything. Why not capitalize on that? Starting your own company based on fear, is the perfect (and sadly, recently American) way to earn a living. The trick to all this is to find something the people are afraid of, and combine it with something that’ll make them feel as though their do something to help themselves. How about:

Matched 401k Demon-Zombie Removal Service

Sure, demon-zombies don’t really exist (outside of Washington), and in a few years, the matched 401k will be a myth too, but when people see you driving down their street in your converted hearse, their fear will kick in. And remember, your job isn’t actually removing the Matched 401k Demon-Zombies, it’s getting people to believe they exist.

Happy Hunting.

Schell