I'd like to treat the national celebration of the return of the Winnipeg Jets -- along with the simultaneous debate over fighting and violence -- as a contemporary case of Depression Culture. Culture during the Great Depression has been widely studied. It included glitzy Hollywood musicals, gangster films, dance marathons, the explosion of radio as a mass medium and the proliferation of sports teams, leagues and superstars.

Sports teams play a special role in people's lives during hard economic times, like the Depression of the 1930s. Fans fasten on their teams, which seem less dependent on harsh, uncontrollable forces and more in the hands of the players.

The playing fields are relatively even, compared to the economy. I don't think this is escapist; it's more like finding solace in the sight of grace under pressure. Even fantasy Hollywood musicals of the 1930s, such as Astaire-Rogers films, display that.

Take the line "Let's face the music and dance" from Follow the Fleet in 1936; it's explicitly about confronting financial despair with elegance.

Have you seen the TV ads?

Just days away from introducing a huge deficit-financed stimulus package to foster spending, our government is spending millions on commercials for a new program promoting citizen saving.

Add self-destructive to our other major economic woes.

I'm referring to the new tax-free savings accounts (TFSA) first announced by Finance Minister Jim Flaherty back in February 2008. The Tories are obviously hoping to bag political credit for this initiative, but by any sane yardstick, the timing of this bonus for the banks should backfire in their faces.