Pretty bad.. all the local majr businesses are laying off a LOT of people.. and I don;t live in a big manufacturing area at all.

Bascially business is down, and the local restraunts, stores, n such are all scaling back so they can stay in busines.. I've noticed a LOT of vacant store and office spots that were all filled a year or so ago.

Land sales have tanked.. land was developed near my home about 3 years ago, 20 some plots, and all sit there undeveloped, and I haven't seen almost anyone at all even looking at them.

My wife's work asked people to take early retirements, they didn;t get enough takers, so they fired about 50 people a few weeks ago.

The local visitor center lost all it's renters for office space, and scaled back to about 1/4 of the space it had before.

And we're in supposedly a good area.

Also add to these, we've had record low temperatures, along with an increase in electric and utility bills. We have an energy efficient home, but our electric bill last month was over $230, and so neighbors had electric bills for over $500 two months in a row now. My local mechanic just took a bunch of his tools to hock them so they could afford thier utility bills.

Personally we are doing fine, but we are seeing the effects everywhere we look. Yeah you'll still see people out and about, they aren;t going to just sit under rocks.. but look at what they are buying, or if they are buying at all, or just value shopping.

Way too many people take way too many things way too seriously.