The Daily Feather — Babylonian Resolutions

Forget the Ball Drop, which got its start in 1907 at the stroke of midnight. The original celebration was Akitu, a massive 12-day religious festival hosted by the ancient Babylonians 4,000 years ago. As part of the ritual, the Babylonians made promises to the gods as resolutions to pay their debts and return any borrowed objects, resolutions to start the year off on the right foot. As for us moderners, according to the Cleveland Clinic, the most common resolutions are eating healthier, drinking less, cooking more, and working out more (just getting to the gym to begin with). As those with strict, disciplined routines attest, their gyms packed to the gills in early January become once more their private workout mecca by March. As for us at QI, this year we resolve to give a hug once a day in 2025 – they tend to our mental health by boosting dopamine – the feel-good hormone. What’s not to like?

As for what’s to come for the U.S. economy, drinking less and cooking more next year may be a product of necessity rather than preference. Many purveyors of packaged food and booze (be it beer, wine or spirits) have experienced chronic demand weakness over the past two years as government handouts have dwindled and inflation has taken a giant bite out of many Americans’ disposable income. While we know that government workers curry the highest incomes for the least in the way of education and experience, what we don’t know is how efficacious the Department of Government Efficiency will be in 2025. If the DOGE’s resolutions are kept, even government workers could find themselves joining the penny-pinching masses.

Of course, many of DOGE’s proposals entail offering generous and lengthy severance packages. Grabbing a side gig to pad savings for displaced government workers won’t prove nearly as easy as it’s been since Amazon first dished out big-time layoffs to cull middling middle managers in November 2022.