Of course they are hurting. I've taken a 50% pay cut and a 50% increase in hours to get it in the past year. Half the people I know who are directly or indirectly employed by the auto industry are out of work or have moved south or west, and the other half is very skittish about their long term prospects.

Of my friends in the building trades, building permits for 2008 for the entire state were fewer than 2,000, which is 10% of the permits issued in 2004. They've either closed their businesses, moved south or west, or have managed to find something else in the interim. That means 9 out of 10 suppliers of every trade are facing the same crisis.

Buy a new car? Two years ago, it was a must-do. Now, very few are confident enough to commit, and then it seems that most of the choices are "practical" cars.

I would take advantage of the purchase deals, but I have 5 more payments on my current daily driver and I'd like a break from car payments for a while.