store closing- wait-what?

when we announced in our local paper the sad demise of my shop tangiers, another local business person came forward with a bold proposal. It looks like we may be able to partner together, and merge his clothing store Dragonflii into mine. I'm thinking about the economy, as i prepare to sign another lease with my evil landlord, Snidley Whipsnade.

This morning i came across this take by one of my favorite commentators on where the USA might be heading:

The dilemma is essentially this: the consumer economy we all knew and loved has died. There will be pressure from nearly every quarter to keep it hooked up to the costly life support machines even though it is dead. A different economy is waiting to be born, but it is nothing like the one that has died. The economy-to-come is one of rigor and austerity. It is not the kind of thing that a nation of overfed clowns is used to. Do we even have a prayer of getting to it, or are we going to squander our dwindling resources on life support for something that is already dead?