[Dr. Thorne]

Not good. Slow summer, fewer vacationers. Construction jobs are gone. Retail is a disaster. Malls are empty with 25% vacancy. Manufacturers are cutting back.

Luckily, I work remotely for an East Coast firm.

[Cringing Negativism Network]

Nice gig. :)

(sort of confirms what I thought)

At one point that area was way up on my list of “plan b” if/when things go south here. Been a while though since that seemed optimal from what I’ve been monitoring.

Beautiful country though. Just thought I’d ask. Thanks.

[dr_lew]

Not good. Slow summer, fewer vacationers. Construction jobs are gone. Retail is a disaster. Malls are empty with 25% vacancy. Manufacturers are cutting back.

But the DOW is up! I've noticed in the past weeks that there have been a lot of "DOW 4000" doom-sayers on CNBC et al. Tonight I saw them being castigated by the host for being so wrong. But why is the DOW up? I'm just sure it's being propped up with TARP money, or something. The bear's on the show were being very defensive, and the bull's were saying, "Hey, up is up! The market's up!" The unreality is palpable.