I don't think the media is really BSing that much. Sure, I am amazed at what gets sensationalized and how, but that said, relevant to this hobby:
one friend does accessory sales and installs in SoCal and had a ton of dealers as clients. He says he has hardly made a dime since Oct!!! (just talked to him a couple days ago) and that as far as car sales goes, no extras whatsoever and it seems that everyone is buying the cheapest, smallest ****box cars due to fuel prices.
Another has a performance sales biz that does pretty darn well with nationwide sales (and some international). I withhold the name as many here may know the place. Anyway, Jan and Feb are his worst months at around $120K gross sales with typical monthly sales around $180K-$200K. This Jan was down over 70%!!! Feb was down 50%!! March was shaping up to be pretty weak as well (talked to him right at the end of the month and it wasn't looking great). So he is REALLY seeing the affects.
As for me I work in aerospace and my job is questionable at this point. It is starting to feel like the early to mid-90s when nobody in that industry could find a job. Gov't is cutting spending in the BILLIONS which is big cuts in that industry. In my tiny section of LockMart (300 people in the group) there were 9 of us in my area of expertise, there are 4 now since Jan due to work being cut and I am the next guy on the block. The other 3 are looking for work that appears steady, so they may dwindle down by attrition anyway, but point is we HALVED our staff in 3 months, one guy senior to me runs out of work in about 3 months as his current program finishes, and my charge # is 'til about August or so and rumors of cuts to that are looking to not be rumors at all as of last week.
So get ready folks, things are going to get worse before they get better IMO. We are in a war that we can never finish, Standard & Poor and Moody were allowed to rate essentially junk debt at A grade and yet there are no repercussions to them (some people should be going to jail for rating debt that was mostly sub-prime notes at 100%+ value borrowed at A-grades, there were hands in pockets there), then you have the gov't spending even more of our tax dollars bailing out a potential $29 BILLION dollars of that debt when I busted my butt, moved to another state because homes were too expensive in CA, and so forth to buy a home on a 30yr fixed, conforming loan because I knew how completely stupid people were to use ARMs, etc and instead of letting the banks take a big suck on those notes... there goes my hard earned tax dollars to fix those loans. Tax dollars that essentially support my industry, so watch me lose my home cuz I lose my job while the gov't uses money they should use on tech to bail out banks that hung themselves and of all people should KNOW better.
While getting my MBA at UCLA, around 2002 or early 2003 a gal from Countrywide came into my fixed income class - the only thing they were hiring was RISK ANALYSIS because they were trying to figure out how much risk was really assoc with those BS loans. Yet sold them right up until BK last year... you gonna tell me that there isn't something criminal to that??? They KNEW by 02, and really knew all along (how could you not!) that debt was very risky and were trying to game how much they were going to win v. lose with risk analysis. That gambling is fine in the markets, but why the gov't starts bailing out banks for gambling... WTF is with that!?
My 10yr plan of looking outside of the US has become a 5 yr plan, and if my job goes away, maybe a 1 yr plan. Fires me up cuz I know vets all the way back to WWII and one that ended up in a concentration camp fighting for this country and we are giving it all away to the illegals (actually the white m%$# f#@$#@s that employ them) and the stupid. When exactly did capitalism become socialism, in fact communism anyway??? I have no desire to work at my potential so everyone that doesn't can have a piece. If that is how it will be, then I will go elsewhere; somewhere I can reap the benefits of the socialism I pay into.
wow, that was a soapbox if I ever saw one
Long story short, the economy IS hurting the hobby. I paid $4 for diesel here in CO the other day and it is more elsewhere, so that alone cuts into how much I spend on other stuff. I have been eating at home more too (fiancee works in restaurants and they are slowing down too BTW). I didn't race a couple weeks ago just out of concern for spending $500 on a one day deal ($150 just fuel in the truck as it is a tank down and back).