Thoroughly discredited PR man Mark Penn enjoys being dominated by Rachel Maddow, and charging outrageous fees to package common sense as insight for out-of-touch corporate mouthbreathers. Today: poor people like cheap things!

Not too long ago Mark Penn personally discovered a microtrend of "Green" things, which consumers like. But scrap that: now that people are poor, they want "Value," not "Green." Consider how Starbucks is offering cheaper food, and people are eating at fast food places more now, and airlines with cheaper tickets are doing better, and—if you can believe it—rich people don't even want to be seen in designer fashions. But Mark Penn, I still find this confusing. Can you find a suitable simile for this microtrend in pop culture?

Like the recent pop song "Hot 'N Cold" that complains, "you're in and you're out, you're up and you're down," the success of products and brands is being reshuffled as consumers re-examine the choices they are making.

The new name for "Microtrends" is "Mark Penn summarizes what any idiot who reads the business section knew years ago, for a hefty fee."