A person has to be nuts to want to be president under this economic cloud.

I'm in the middle of building a house, and the first hand reports I'm getting from my contractors are grim. My concrete contractor has never missed a payment, but is having difficulty getting concrete delivered from the same vendor he's used for 5 years because the concrete company - a large one at that - is having cash flow issues. My plumber is doing everything he can to hang on to every job he's bid to keep himself scheduled in the coming months. Jobs like my house count because he knows he'll be putting in more time there in a couple months or so after the framing is finished. I had a union carpenter offer to work for $18/hr cash to help me finish some framing while he waits for more contract work to come in. Makes me feel pretty fortunate to have a steady paycheck.

In a way maybe it's good that my construction start was delayed so long. At least I'm helping keep some contractors busy during a time when things look pretty lean for them.