You make good points about a tough economic picture. It does seem to be somewhat regional now, but that can change in a hurry. Did Arnold find a Sugar Daddy for the state of CA yet?

Your $2.75 / gal at Costco is illustrative of some of the problems with regulation. Gas is $2.50 / gal here and we are expecting it to go to $2 before the end of the year based on reports in yesterday's paper. Is you gas better than mine? lol

As one who sells to many of the largest retailers in the US, I can state without exception that the Big Boxes are frantic to get their share of Christmas sales as early as possible. Wall Street, a presidential election, and the housing market just don't want to cooperate.

I'm not certain that good news right now would move EDIG a lot in this marketplace. IMO, it may be early 2009 before we can really see a more stable market which would react far better than the current Helter Skelter DOW.

Of course, this too shall pass. It always has and there is no reason to believe otherwise.

John