The economy is "dreadfully sick" mostly from the point of view of lower and middle income people. It's "so-so" for the wealthy. It's fairly good for larger co

The economy is "dreadfully sick" mostly from the point of view of lower and middle income people. It's "so-so" for the wealthy. It's fairly good for larger companies. Public company profits are very strong for 2010 and balance sheets tend to be very solid. Public companies have been sitting on their huge cash hoards (estimated at around $1 tril) but have recently been doing stock buybacks and increasing dividends. More importantly, profitability is strongly up across almost every sector. Much of that is from cost cutting rather than increased sales, but companies that do a lot of business overseas have been seeing a better top line as well. Sadly, none of this has helped the unemployment picture. Companies simply do not want to hire more people in the US for a variety of reasons. Debt loads for consumers is still very high and because the real estate market is still weak, people's most valuable asset is often a chain around their necks. A rather mixed picture, IMO.