As the Dow drops another 250 points (2/23/09) I keep seeing disconnects from the bad news.

It took me three hours to get from Atlanta to Macon last week (a ninety minute trip). I do not think all of those 18 wheelers were running empty.

I had to wait 20 minutes for a seat at Carrabba’s. There was a twenty minute wait at Wild Wings for lunch on Sunday and an equal wait at Sticky Finger’s nearby. The parking lot at the new mall was crowded. The gym was crowded.

If I did not get the news, there is little in Middle Georgia to tell me that we are on the edge of an economic abyss. Yes I know that things have slowed down, and New York has been hit much harder. I also realize that the auto, financial, banking and real estate industry are in an absolute depression. High growth areas such as Florida, Las Vegas, and Atlanta have been hit the hardest; when you eat like and elephant, you shit like an elephant.

But our strength is in economic diversity. We tend to have rolling recessions where some industries and regions get hit hard and others do OK. This appears to be markets adjusting. While unemployment is high and rising it is still well below the highs of the recession of 1981-82.

We are seeing excess credit unwinding, the ultimate costs of a weak monetary policy, and the result of a demographic shift.

These are long term trends unwinding and they must take their course. They are more a result of public policy than private excess. The problems that are exploding are systemic.

Yet it seems many readers feel comfortable blaming Bush, Greenspan, Clinton (Bill), Pelosi, Obama or whatever scapegoat you prefer. This economy is well beyond the control of any of these players, not to excuse incompetence and bad policy decisions from all of them.

Meanwhile, we get closer to a stock market bottom every day.

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