Drastic Drops in New Car Sales:

While Exxon Mobil and the other oil titans registered record breaking profits, the automobile industry is suffering through agonies that would have been hard to imagine a year ago. Nick Bunkley reports on the numbers in The New York Times: General Motors saw sales fall by almost half in January. Ford and Toyota didn't fare that much better.

In New York City, Madison Avenue looks like Allentown, PA a few years ago, or maybe your local mall. (See the photo in today's New York Times.) A friend e-mailed me yesterday that downtown Boston is shuttering as well.

In other economic news, "pending" home sales were up in December. "Pending" means that the buyer has signed a contract but that the deal has not been "closed." It should be noted that the median home price in December was $175 thousand, down from the previous December when it was $207 thousand. (See The New York Times' story.) (Note: "median" means in the middle, not the average.) So are people buying cheaper houses, or are houses selling for less? The answer is likely all of the above. Provided financing is available.