[LS]

Exactly. What I see is an unexplained (by all the smart economists I know) two-tiered system of haves and have-nots. But the haves ARE spending, and it ain't just tax refund money, and they aren't just continuing to borrow. I don't know exactly where it's coming from. I suspect that people who have jobs aren't much worse off than two years ago, and that a lot of people don't have jobs.

So in Dayton and Cincy, parts of the towns are ghost towns, but parts (high-end shopping malls) are going strong.

[throwback]

Maybe the parallel breaks down, but I think the Great Depression wasn’t bad if you had a job or some source of income. Everything was super cheap. It’s just that if you lost your job, there was no hope of ever getting another one. Personally, I just got a pay raise. Meanwhile, the layoffs in my company continue, and our clients aren’t beating down the door with new projects. It’s like a horror film where the teenager continues polishing her nails, but you suspect she’ll be a dead woman shortly.