I hear the economy is bad. Stocks are down. The financial sectors are in a depression, and housing is as bad as its been in decades. High gas and food prices are causing problems.

Outside of that my eyes are telling me a different story.

Scrap prices, which are often a good economic indicator of our overall industrial health, is at an all time high. Steel price are also at a high and demand is strong. Our steel fabricating customers seem to stay busy. It is still somewhat difficult to find quality employees.

I tried to book a room at a hotel in Atlanta and they were all booked; and I mean the relatively expensive Buckhead hotels.

The last two flights I took were full. The Atlanta airport was crowded.

Debbie and I went out to Bonefish for dinner on a Thursday night and we had a 30 minute wait, and that was for a $60 casual dinner. And not a very good one at that. Last night there was a line waiting to be seated at Carrabba’s.

I am on the upper income scale and can absorb these cost increases better than most, but I also have nearly 200 employees including single mothers with several children in modest income positions, and divorced fathers paying for a second home and child support. These are the people who are already struggling to get by and get hit the hardest with the higher gas and food prices.

They are all cutting back on their $4 lattes at Starbucks, vacationing at home, and reducing their personal milage driven. I haven’t seen any of the smokers give up their $3 packs of cigarettes.

Carpooling with just one other person cuts your fuel bill in half. Many are vacationing at home, and the conversations show that they now think before they drive; they realize the trip to get a $5 gallon of milk will cost $3 in gas.

Things are tough, but most adjust where they can because they have no choice. Higher fuel bills hurt frivolous expenses. The auto industry will adjust to different cars and workers adjust by making different choices.

But I do not sense the depth of a slowdown that the news reports.

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