You know Wall Street is feeling pretty glum when a downbeat economic forecast from the Fed fails to lift its spirits. There was a time when investors would celebrate such news, since it supposedly raised the odds of more Fed easing ' or at least, diminished the odds of more tightening. Now, it would appear, bad economic news is no longer good economic news, even when it's so bad that no one other than Kudlow can see even a glimmer of hope for recovery before 2010 or so. That's a long time to go without a solid upswing, especially considering the country's been in recession for more than a year already. We're not talking about 'official' recession, of course, since that kind of recession is likely to remain invisible to official statisticians until unemployment pushes above 10% and soup kitchens start springing up in Westchester County. No, we mean the kind of recession that has already whacked consumers so hard that it looks like only Wal-Mart is certain to survive among the retailers, and McDonald's among purveyors of fast food. We don't know whether the recession has claimed any victims in our own neighborhood near Boulder, Colorado, but the local mall has been dying almost since it opened eight years ago. Lord & Taylor was the first anchor tenant to call it quits, but the trend has accelerated in the last couple of years, taking down Sharper Image, Harry & David's, Appliance World, Hold Everything, a half-dozen restaurants and, most recently, a fast-food favorite of ours, Steak Escape. Flatiron Mall has an out-of-doors section called The Village, but so many vendors have moved out that it has become gangrenous appendage. The display windows of all of the shuttered stores promise 'A New Concept in Retailing' coming 'soon,' but shoppers are
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