If There Is An Economic Problem I Don't See It

I live in middle America. Madisonville, Kentucky to be exact. We are 45 miles south of Evansville, Indiana and about 90 miles north of Nashville, Tennessee. Things are supposed to be tough economically for regions like here. I don't see it. Gas prices are down. Food prices are down. If what I have seen at the local mall here in Madisonville as well as Evansville and the Opry Mills Mall in Nashville is supposed to represent and economic slowdown then I must be blind. 20 minutes just to find a parking place at the mall??? WalMart parking lot full???? The interstate with traffic going both ways as far as the eye can see???

Personally I think we have been sold a story. Obama says we are in an economic crisis and that Bush has wrecked the economy. Bush didn't wreck the economy, greedy people in positions of financial power did the damage, if there is indeed damage. Now, I am not a conspiracy theorist, but I am beginning to wonder why what I hear on the news doesn't match what I see out on the street.

Maybe I am just blind. What do you see where you live???