Not exactly economic, but lots of h1n1 swine flu vaccine advertisements plastered everywhere here - on the side of buses- on billboards - huge signs outside the free clinics, grocery stores, etc... definitely campaigning stronger than ever to vaccinate the population.

millions of sq feet of vacant commercial buildings here... yet lots of new construction still going up... probably 20% or more of the commercial space is vacant, but they are still building tons more...
tons of vacant housing as well but rents are still ridiculously expensive, haven't dropped in price at all....

grocery stores are like ghost towns, especially higher end ones

mexican drive thru place raised the price of tacos from 1$ to 1.25$ ... i would guess a lot of people probably would just order 8 or 10 tacos no drinks/nothing else