What Recession?

It is true that there are vacant stores in the area around DC where we were staying. The Courtyard Hotel lobby was full most of the time with guests waiting to check in or trying to fill their cups with freshly brewed coffee. We had to wait for 35 minutes to be seated at the co-located restaurant which also had a micro brewery that had some excellent German beer. The bar area was over crowded on that Friday evening. The waitress had too many tables to wait on that after taking our order, she never showed up except to bring the bill. We wanted to ask for a bottle of Tabasco. What type of tip should you give to the waitress when you are treated like that? The next evening we went to Asia Nine, a Thai outfit that advertises as an Asian-Asian Fusion restaurant. The hostess and server were attentive, courteous, and efficient. The restaurant was full and the turnaround time was the minimum. The food was good and they served Thai beer. The guests were going their merry way and they were definitely stimulating the economy. The DC chamber of Commerce estimates that up to a million visitors would come to Washington to attend the Cherry Blossom Festival. The Amtrak train on the way back was full with no vacant seats. People were definitely traveling, spending money, and enjoying themselves; all healthy signs of a recovering economy. Paul Krugman (the Nobel prize winning economist from Princeton) was seen standing near a gate waiting for a New York bound train. Perhaps I should have approached and told him to be less pessimistic and allow some time for the stimulus package to work its way.