This Economy Is Roaring

I just came back from a fly fishing trio to Traverse City, Mi. The fishing up there is horrible. A news report today claims fish catches in the Manistee River, a popular trout stream, are off 90% since Labor Day.  Woe is me. But the economy up there was booming.   I could not believe my eyes. Restaurants on Front Street had good crowds- and tourist season is pretty well past. The population is growing- due to an influx or retirees, not illegal immigrants.    I saw help- wanted signs in McDonald's windows.  This is a sign that minimum wage jobs are going begging- a precursor of inflation. Rush hour traffic was heavy. Real estate sales are strengthening.   http://www.realestateone.com/pdfs/monthly/aug2015.pdf )  I heard rumors, of course, of hotel booking cancellations from out-of-state fishermen who have gotten the word about the dismal trout and salmon  harvest this year.  Tourism is huge up there and this could turn out to be a real drag.
  In any event, it looks like people in the Traverse City area all the way south to Frankfort, are comfortable, confident, and prosperous.
 It did me good to get outside the D.C. beltway where people always are prosperous because they  feed off of your tax dollars to see what life is like elsewhere. Of course, the trip would have been more rewarding if I had caught some fish!