Markets as an indicator: Usually the most reliable of all indicators, and right now it seems to be telling us that there is no recession in our immediate future. Everything bad is already in the market, things can only get better on the fuel front (every day another refinery will come back on line), and I have to assume that the sky high natural gas and heating oil prices are also in the market. I don't know what the smart money knows that I don't know, but we have a clear signal of no recession. Gold is telling us that inflation is a major worry, and the commodity price index is on the moon. Just watch the market and pay no attention whatsoever to the news.