State Of The American Union

On the surface, there is a feeling that everything is alright with the American economy. The headlines have turned away from doom and gloom and it would take a lot of digging to find out how the economy is fairing.

GM finally throwing in the towel and filing for bankruptcy is to me a confirmation that the economy is still in a decline. Housing, the genesis of this recession, is still in a fall and foreclosures seem to be the order of the day.

Recently I drove through one of the major thoroughfares in my town with the sole purpose of checking the strip malls. The said road runs for almost 20 miles with shops and businesses on both sides of the roads. From what I could see, a lot of the premises were vacant. Probably 60 - 70% occupancy on average with some blocks more affected than others. And in the free standing Big box retailers, like Home Depot, Best Buy and Kohl's, the car parks were not as crowded as you would expect during the weekend.

Traffic on the other hand was heavy but not jammed as it used to be the case a few years ago when we used to have weekend traffic jams caused by shoppers.

From what I see, it looks like we have adapted our lifestyles to suit the declining economic situation and thus the reason for reduced fears and increased optimism for the future. The worst may be behind us but we still have a while before we emerge from the tough economic environment.