America is in the midst of a zombie renaissance, says Torie Bosch at Slate. It's no coincidence that "the undead have gone from lowbrow guilty pleasure to the favored monster of the erudite" just as the economy slipped into malaise, and then recession. As a pop-culture and marketing theme, "zombies are the perfect representation of the fiscal horror show" we're living through, especially for endangered white-collar workers who feel like the walking dead. Ironically, zombies' "contribution to Main Street's economy is very much alive," feeding more than $5 billion into U.S. cash registers in recent years, and even more globally, says Jon C. Ogg at 24/7 Wall Street. A guide, by the numbers:
$5.74 billion
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