I was fascinated by how many of you defended the $35 cheeseburger yesterday. Supporters seemed to break up into two camps.

The first were people who simply said, hey, that’s what the market will bear and more power to the burgermeisters. That argument is fine as far as it goes, but actually proves my point. The market is careening down in a plume of black smoke. Price will perforce have to follow. 

The second were more interesting to me. These were the economist types who tried to do the math and came up with the idea that a more profitable niche product, one that destroys circulation and cuts down on ancillary revenue also used to pay overhead, was preferable.

What I liked about these latter types was the sureness with which they offered their arguments. They were wrong on two counts: 1) the math itself failed to recognize that there are many fixed costs attached to the restaurant and simply tried to pour all operating costs – from rent to electricity – into that poor little cheeseburger; and 2) there is never any excuse, no matter how many numbers and charts you deploy against it, that makes an empty restaurant, plane seat or hotel room better than a full one.

When you can fill the room by demanding outrageous prices, more power to you. But the relationship between price, value and ability to pay is going to have to be evaluated. In my lifetime alone, I’ve seen things go absolutely crazy, with the cost of things sometimes escalating to a point where it feels like 1980 was 1880. I look at what a diner breakfast would have set you back 25 years ago and it reads like one of those menus from the Old West, where a meal of steak, potatoes and coffee was  a nickel.

What’s going to come down? 

Cars? Many of my pals in the corporation – not all of them super-players – are driving around in mid-range foreign jobs that cost more than my mom and dad paid for our house in the suburbs back when I was a kid. I looked at a little tin can the other day that cost nearly $30,000. 

Hotels? You can’t stay in any major city for less than $300 unless you find a fire sale price online. Some teeny rooms in Manhattan go for $800 and up. When I was in Rome a while back I went to have a drink at one of the finest hotels in the world, The Hassler. We had martinis and some nuts. Came to about $100. That’s not the intriguing part. The lobby was utterly and totally deserted. The shops were empty. That whole hotel was all dressed up with no place to go. Think they can go on that way?

And then there’s food. More people will be eating at home for quite some time, that’s for sure, when they’re not at McDonald’s or Denny’s. Recently, Whole Foods designed a Recession Menu for people who want to shop there without losing their life savings. That’s smart. I didn’t look at it yet. I’ve been too busy going to Safeway.

We don’t have to worry about gasoline, of course. Those prices are already carefully set by the masters of oil, who carefully judge what we can pay, making sure never to freak us out so entirely that we consider doing anything immediate and serious to break our dependence on their product.

What do you think is out of whack? Postage? Cheese logs? College? The price of your company’s stock? No, wait! That should be higher, right?

Good morning, campers! It’s a bright and crispy morning in Manhattan and the leaves are changing to all kinds of festive colors. You can almost feel the holiday gridlock in the air. The stores are festooning. The stack of party invitations grows daily. There’s so much to be thankful for. I’m gonna keep this cheese ball rolling.

Today I am grateful that many of you agreed with me about the nature of “Thank you for your patience,” finding it to be a thinly veiled threat to mental equalibrium. Also, quite a few of you saw the new Bing video on this subject that was posted yesterday on Fortune.com and may even still be up for all I know. I am also thankful that the management of this blog is expanding its video capability to provide poor, working blogsters such as myself with a new platform and potential big bucks in the new media sector. Just kidding, management dudes! It’s not about the money! Honest!

I am extremely appreciative of the fact that it is Friday. These days I spend a fair amount of Saturday simply staring into space and eating every two to three hours. I am looking forward to doing that again tomorrow, and maybe even part of Sunday before I start obsessively chewing the inside of my lip again.

I am thankful, as always, for the fact that I do not have a fish tank. I tried to maintain one for a long time and all it did was drive home the inevitability of decay and death. Now that I do not have a fish tank, I don’t have to think about that kind of stuff ever. What a relief!

I am grateful that 2007 is almost over. I can’t say this has been an easy year. For proof of that fact, I direct you to everything I have written since this blog started last spring. It hasn’t been a bad year. Just difficult. I’m thinking 2008 is going to be somewhat better in that regard. No inflation, as we had feared in ‘07. No deflation. No stagflation. No recession. No depression. Just good hearty times and an ever-expanding market. And hey — let’s add a couple of inches to the polar ice caps, huh? Won’t our endangered species be happy about that!

I’m still thankful for clone monkeys. In fact, I’m thinking of hiring a few. It would be an improvement to the social environment around here, particularly in Finance.

I am thankful, in large part because of your comments, for my health insurance. A lot of you scolded me for complaining about it, and you’re right. For the record, I underestimated its cost in a prior posting here. I forgot I’m charged twice a month for my contribution, meaning that my payroll deductions on an annual basis come to about $10,000 per year. But I’m still grateful! Really!

And of course I’m thankful for all you guys. Hey. Ah loves ya.

Have a nice weekend. And y’all come back on Monday, you hear?