The economy in this area has been dead for a long time, it died back in the mid-90s with the shut down of the coal mines and printing plant; however, some things are getting better, but the question is for how long. They are building a new coal powered power plant and are reopening one of the mines. The other local power plant is I think rebuilding to pass new regulations, which you know who is going to have to pay for all of that. The auto parts plant is laying people off as it has been doing as far back as I can remember. St. Louis continues to decay with layoffs at the few remaining businesses and I'm sure the greed of certain members of the Busch family isn't going to help AB jobs (excuse me, AB InBev jobs).[:@]

The area where I went to college seems to be doing alright as long as people keep buying domestically Energizers, chains, ATVs, boxes, farm related stuff, etc. I'm sure the campus will be enjoying a huge check from Uncle Sam to blow on things to run the tuition even higher.