Ramblings on the Economy - Part 1

I spent the past few days in Seattle where the current changes to our economic environment are more pronounced due to the size of the metropolitan area. During my visit I stayed in downtown Seattle and traveled to Bellevue to work on Thursday and Friday. This involves a commute over I-90, one of the two floating bridges spanning Lake Washington. A few years ago, this trip would be stop and go - bumper to bumper traffic after 7:30. A simple 12 mile commute would often take 45+ minutes between 7:30 to 9:00. Last week, I made the journey at 7:45 and 8:05 in the morning and both trips were under 20 minutes. The traffic literally disappeared.

A few friends mentioned that traffic has lightened up across the greater Seattle area in the past few months. I was astonished to see the difference first hand and it was unsettling to know that job losses were the major reason for the reduction in traffic.