first, i suspected that our economy was being propped up by campaign advertising dollars. then, after the election was over, the christmas season began. even though holiday spending was way down this year, people still did spent more than they would otherwise.
so now what? there's no big spending event coming down the pike for a while, we've been shedding jobs at a phenomenal rate since early fall, and that was with the election and christmas shopping season propping things up. all that's left now is the end of the year, so businesses can take stock of just how brutal the end of 2008 was.
once that sinks in, it will get really bad. in november over a quarter of all retailers thought there was a "high possibility" they would go bankrupt. that number is probably even higher now. i suspect the next few months will be the grimmest yet. which makes me wonder again why anyone would want to run this country, especially now. if i were in obama's place, my first act of office would be to resign. then again, if i were in obama's place, i never would have run.
