"America's in a bad mood, and I can't believe that that's good for political stability. "
Speaking personally, at a micro-level here, it's just getting too expensive to go out and do stuff these days. I think I just read at imdb.com that this weekend's box office was down by almost 20% compared to a year ago, and a major NY music fest that had big names like Pixies, Oasis, Beck, Interpol, etc., etc had tons o' empty seats (http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/_/id/7683712/jet?rssfeed=musicnews).
I was looking for Halloween attractions locally -- $20 per person to go to a haunted house? Gas at $3 per gallon? $4 for a cup of coffee? Heating/cooling costs going up 13% this month "due to the hurricanes"? Who is setting these prices? What world do they live in?
I haven't been this financially stressed in years and I know I'm not alone.
-B.