If you think the economic downturn is over, pick a state in the US and go for a drive. Last week, I drove across Florida, from St Petersburg beach on the west coast to Cape Canaveral on the east coast. Along the way, the highways were dotted with vacant strip-malls, and towns where houses that didn't have a for sale sign in their front yard were the exception, not the norm. Pawn shops and yard sales proliferated.
When a woman ambled up to me outside of a supermarket in the old-money section of south Tampa, grabbed my arm and said, Honey, can you spare some food for my sister and me she surprised me. It...