Just got back from several days in Orlando and Tampa, Florida. Checked out a few coin shops. Zero, nada, zilch anything precious. One guy furious at the shenanigans and ready to close up shop.

Seems to me, even on such a short trip, that a lot of us Americans are in for a rude awakening. I toured a couple of big shopping malls and was surprised to see both of them packed with people day and evening. Stores very busy, though I cannot say how much buying was going on. However, not a single shop space out of hundreds was for lease which was an eye opener, since scores of stores especially in strip malls in a lot of southeast Florida here are vacant or for lease. And getting worse with fairly well-to-do areas not being spared. It is quite jarring to drive into a once-active strip mall and pass one vacant store after another.

Busch Gardens in Tampa, the huge animal-themed park, was also jam packed. What surprised me was the number of really not-just-fat but huge people waddling around the park, most munching on something junk. I know the US has an obesity problem, and it was there for all to see. That park now costs over 61 bucks US per person plus 10 bucks to park plus all the rest. I just can't imagine all of them having the spare bucks to indulge like this, and I wonder what will happen when the music stops.

On a side note, a couple of pawn shops here in super wealthy/super poor Palm Beach County are no longer taking tools of any sort - shop, garden, gas or electric powered, whatever. One guy has a large storage unit jammed packed and no way to get rid of them for a long time. I doubt any of the guys who had to swap their hand tools to help survive were up there at Busch Gardens.

Another guy, a former plumber, now working for Publix, the big food market chain, told me that he was laughed at a few years ago by his fellow well-paid construction buddies for giving up the trade, now gets a couple of calls every week from the same guys asking for his help in getting any kind of job with Publix, even minimum wage. Construction here, booming for a long time, is now about dead, and a lot of guys are really hurting.