Trend or today's storyline?

Time magazine has a cover story on "The New Frugality," one of many pronouncements that "Things Are Going to Be Different From Now On."

Haven't we been here before, though? Didn't we hear repeatedly after 9/11 that things were never going to be the same? That we were going to concentrate more on what counts, spend more time with our families, stuff like that?

We're not sure, but, aside from padding through airport security lines barefoot carrying a lot of tiny bottles in Ziplock bags, not much seems to have changed in people's lives. And you could make the argument that had people really decided to treasure the simple things in life rather than earn, borrow, charge and buy as much as humanly possible in the last few years, we might not be in quite as bad of an economic mess now.

So pardon us if we roll our eyes at the latest round of "things will never be the same" stories. The more things change ...