Geekonomics: Key To Fixing Economy Might Lie With 'Watchmen' Or 'The Outer Limits'

My geeky brethren - now is our time.

For longer than any of us like admitting, we the pop culture, kitsch, sci-fi, gaming and cult entertainment-obsessed have been pushed toward society's fringes, always restrained at least an arm's reach from the Cool Kids' table.

Well, sit back and listen to the news: we let the Cool Kids keep the ball, we're about one more 500-point NASDAQ nose-dive away from Iron Curtain-style toilet paper queues or a living-history remake of "The Grapes of Wrath" and one economist now believes the blow could've at least been softened if we'd all sat back and dug on watching "Watchmen" and a good-sized block of "The Outer Limits."

Nobel Prize-winning economist - so, sort of the King Leonidas of the geek hordes - and left-leaning New York Times columnist Paul Krugman informed CNN recently that the two venerable respective graphic novel and sci-fi television institutions could tell us more about how we got into this mess and how we get out than many have admitted.

"If we discovered that space aliens were planning to attack and we needed a massive build-up to counter the space alien threat, and inflation and budget deficits took secondary place to that, this slump would be over in 18 months," Krugman explained.

"And then if we discovered, 'whoops, we made a mistake,' we'd [still] be better. There was a 'Twilight Zone' episode like this, in which scientists fake an alien threat in order to achieve world peace. Well, this time we need it to get some fiscal stimulus."

OK, so he did reference the wrong legendary sci-fi anthology. He probably meant the "Outer Limits" episode "The Architects of Fear." In that one, scientists conned the world's nations into peace via a concocted alien-invasion scare. Likewise, in "Watchmen," Ozymandias ends the Cold War by setting off a disastrous attack that frames Dr. Manhattan, and convinces the United States and the Soviets that he's the common enemy that's worth their putting aside their differences to erradicate.

I know what I believe. That seems like a solid enough principle, but it doesn't human unpredictability into account. Of course it works out that way in fiction. It was written that way. But reality doesn't get rewrites, second takes and director's-cut revisions after the fact. But watch Krugman's interview yourself, and tell us: is truth stranger than fiction? Could he be on to something?

Or, on the other hand, should we all just be really thankful that this isn't the guy with his finger on the red button?