Sarah talks about the economy in Michigan, and how that's relative to the rest of the country.
A member of my community was retiring recently and a write-up in a newspaper described the economic situation of my small town when he arrived in 1980. Pretty grim.
And because my dad was a writer and had a small publishing business--yes, I followed in my dad's footsteps just like many of you--our household personified financial slump. Advertising was an "extra" some companies, mistakenly, put first to cut and, unfortunately, last to pay. Even grimmer.