You can’t turn on the news here in the US without being told how bleak the financial future is. The real estate crisis, the credit crunch, the Baer Stearn's bail-out; it’s enough to make you want a beer. But, no, the price is going up there, too, right?

This is why Anheuser-Busch is in such good shape for the coming lean times, at least according to W. Randolph Baker, AB's CFO. AB has almost always maintained or improved their situation when the rest of the market has suffered. This is because the company is diversified and sells less expensive brands of beer like Busch and Natural Lite.

Here’s how the thinking goes. People will always drink beer. But as financial situations worsen they will buy cheap, or sub-premium as the article terms it, beer. Sub-premium, mmm! Makes you want to order one right now, doesn’t it? There’s a certain logic at work there I suppose and given the provable success of it in the past I can’t really dispute it.

For my part I’d rather just buy fewer good beers.