There’s a cliché in economic psychology that goes something like this: “If your neighbor loses their job, it’s a recession. If you lose your job, it’s a depression.” That simple statement neatly sums up the danger of predicting how people interpret and react to economic news. Regardless of what the national, “big picture” economic numbers may be, the economy -- from a vote-influencing standpoint -- is really only what the individual thinks it is, as filtered through the prism that passes the light into their individual world. The GDP may say one thing, the Labor Participation Rate may say something else, but if that person was recently laid off because their facility just shut down and moved its operations somewhere else, then the economy is bad. Pure and simple. The first thing that affects an individual’s perception of the economy is the solidity and staying power of his employer. A coal miner, an automotive...(Read Full Article)