All the financial people I talk to say we haven't hit bottom and stocks are unlikely to make a quick rebound. As I walk around downtown I see stores all lit up but no one inside. Who's buying furniture, art, sexy lingerie these days?
I'm fortunate that my business is brisker than usual. So instead of doing my usual thing of declining new cases, I'm taking them, because I don't know how bad it's going to be.
I know that Obama's $1,000. tax cut means nothing to me -- one way or another it will go back to the government. I'd much rather see the money go to lower prices that would drive people back to restaurants and boutiques and other small-owned shops, so they can do more business and hire more people. I find I'm tipping a lot more, thinking just a few dollars more means a lot to a great many folks these days.
Since I'm not a football fan, the Superbowl strikes me as a particularly unnecessary extravaganza. But from the inserts in my newspapers, which are flooded with deals for pizza and other overpriced, non-nutritious food, everyone's hoping for a boon.
The best deals right now are airfare. Apparently the value of the dollar is rising overseas. Between security which has made flying so miserable, and the planes that have become so cramped you feel like you're packed in a can of sardines, I'm just not interested.
I think I'll learn to love my work again (not hard to do since I really do love it) so that when a dryspell hits in my business, I'll at least know I can get by. Since I have no economic knowledge, I wonder how many people out there with a similar lack of knowledge come away from the media coverage of our economic disaster the same way.
This is an open thread.