Is the economy getting better, worse, or stagnating?

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The following is a quick view of the USA as seen from our Chevrolet.

We just completed another road-trip vacation to Florida and back; we usually do this once or twice a year, the times based on the whims of my wife; she has a knack for craving Florida sunshine during hurricane season.

We especially like traveling during the times of major economic malaise because there is less car and truck traffic plus the hotels are cheaper and less crowded. Anecdotally, I’d say the economy is doing better now than it was a year ago as evidenced by the number of freight-hauling trucks that made our driving downright contentious. The hotel rates are still relatively cheap but we found that reservations filled up early in the day. Most of the travelers we saw in the hotels were business travelers. As far as off-season vacation travelers, we noticed that often the highways had more trucks than cars on them and our favorite sleepy little Florida town was sleepier than normal.

My guess is that the economic recovery is progressing, albeit SLOWLY. Jobs are still scarce; we noticed that many of the hotel staff members and restaurant employees (jobs that usually have a high turnover rate) were the same folks we met on our last trip.

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