Tailspin 1.0 Is Coming

We are moving quickly toward a serious economic downdraft. I hate to be a Gloomy Gus, but as they say in Australia, "Bob's your uncle." Meaning: it is what it is. A few notes:

• We are a small business playing it close to the line. Increasingly, customer service and sales personnel are difficult to reach on the telephone to confirm in-stock and price before ordering. 
• Increasingly, web information can't be trusted for us buyers because the controlling company has cut back so severely on staff, maintenance is getting slow and sloppy.
• Reading the tea leaves in the Wall Street Journal every day, it is clear that there is more bad news in the pipeline: more foreclosures coming, toxic assets that were bought globally (when those assets seemed to have the best Return On Investment but now are, well, poisonous), and gloomy economists, mostly, with gloomy predictions for the immediate future.
  

Summing up: gloom is happening.

The large financial services firms clearly do not get it. Profits are up hugely for several of them -- Bank of America, AIG, others -- but taking large profits (and distributing large bonuses) will not endear you to a public that is losing jobs and homes everywhere.  

Pyramid capitalism is soooo last year.

Best take cover. The weather is going to get nastier.