Here are some bullet points to support my opinion.

• I meet with salespeople of all stripes — I always ask about how their businesses have been doing.

  With only a couple of exceptions, for highly specialized industries, sales seem to be way down, and have been so for years, and I have not been talking about it, but I have been watching it.

  It continues into 2012 — The sweet spot seems to be roughly about a 30% downturn compared to 2007, which sounds high, but that is my estimate based on what I hear.

• I have watched the construction-related industries essentially collapse.
• I have watched the “outsourcing” movement take hold, which reduces costs - That’s why they do it.
• I hear over and over about how employers do not replace essential people who leave, and push the tasks onto others.
• I am seeing more and more employers trying to save on taxes and benefits by misclassifying people as “1099″ workers, rather than as regular employees.
• Fast food managers are not getting the bonuses they have expected, and the quality of fast food has been declining as a result. Fast food managers only make a modest wage, and hope for a decent bonus.

  I have been hearing about it in my office — If you are not getting your bonuses as a fast food manager, then you are not going to be as sharp at supervising. This means you may not care enough about watching people and product. Under-supervised workers produce poor product. Plus, the restaurants are obviously buying cheaper supplies.

• And we all know well that houses have lost 30% of their value, and I won’t even begin to discuss foreclosures.
• Car companies are claiming high profits — But car companies can grab profits by beating up on their suppliers — For example, they can get a supplier to drop the price for making a seat from $200 to $100, under threat to find a new supplier. (No, car-makers do not make their own parts — They buy their parts from suppliers, and assemble them)
• The Government needs to prop up confidence in the economy, so they push out an artificially happy view of how we are doing. This is not a Republican vs Democrat thing.
• (But some places are still booming — Here locally, in my area, Red Lobster and Olive Garden are always full)

We will be posting some more info here soon about where you can get some help — These articles are works in progress, and it takes a lot of time to bring them up to where they need to be — Thanks for your patience