Back in 1987, Wall Street crashed, but Main Street blew by the financial carnage like Vikings running back Adrian Peterson scooting by a couple of step-too-slow safeties. And the next year Vice President George H.W. Bush sailed on to election as president over Michael Dukakis. This year, while plenty of bears on Wall Street are predicting a one-handle for the fourth quarter, perhaps as a prelude to a recession next year, the data keep proving devilish. You had the report of 3.9 percent growth in gross domestic product last week followed by news that the economy added 166,000 jobs. Today, there was a report showing that the service sector strengthened last month. Says Brian Bethune of Global Insight: "The bottom line is that strong overseas demand and a much lower U.S. dollar are combusting together to keep activity in the services industries fairly well buoyed, and surprisingly immunized from recent weakness in the financial industry and the protracted recession in housing construction-related industries." But hey, let's talk some more about Citigroup.
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