By Ray LeMoine

As the global economy tanks, Hollywood reflects the times. This week’s number one movie, Beverly Hills Chihuahua, about rich dogs, made Disney a cool $30 million this weekend. Some guy on MSNBC just said we are in a time of “maximum pessimism.” Reading this BHC plot synopsis certainly maximizes my pessimism:

A pampered Beverly Hills chihuahua named Chloe (voiced by Drew Barrymore) who, while on vacation in Mexico, gets lost and must rely on her friends to help her get back home before she is caught by a dognapper who wants to ransom her. In the meantime, Papi (voiced by George Lopez), a male chihuahua who is in love with her is in pursuit of her. Chloe befriends a lonely german shepard (voiced by Andy Garcia) who travels with her to protect her from a evil doberman (voiced by Edward James Olmos) who wants to kill her and steal her diamond collar to return it to the dognapper who owns him.

Any country that supports a film like BHC is dumb enough to create zero-down mortgages for people with no credit, allow investment banks to borrow $30 on the (invisible mortgage) dollar, and then trade $70 trillion on credit default derivatives.