"... with the way the economy is."

"...with the way the economy is." Is becoming the tag line of choice. It
is outrageous. It makes me want to say, "What WAY is the economy?" What
economic indicators are people using to determine the WAY of the economy?
My feeling is most people hear the tag line, and then use it themselves as
a sort of solution to hardship. I want to hear someone say, "I got a great
deal on a computer, with the way the economy is." Or "Interest rates are
at a historic low, thanks to this economy."

I saw a huge headline in a national newspaper that said, "stock market
loses 2.1 (billion or trillion I forget) for the first time since the great
depression. They are trying to pull on the emotion of our thoughts of the
great depression. What they failed to mention is the market as about a 100
times market capitalization as it did 70 years ago. In other words the 2.1
billion (trillion) drop in over all stock value is a drop in the bucket
relatively. I'll listen to what people say about ...with the way the
economy is. when they tell me which way it is, and don't say down. Give me
statistics that tell me my life is qualitiatively worse than it was 4 years
ago. The iphone is 199, I would say my life is quantitatively better!