…but similar perspectives:

The small businessman (via WTSP.com):

“What we see is that people aren’t spending as much as they used to,” [athletic gear store owner Jeff Pape] said. “People that might have come into the store and spent $150 or $200 on stuff are now backing off to $60 or $70.

To Pape, there’s no mystery why.

“People that had jobs that were making $100,000 or $150,000, are now making $40,000 or $50,000, and that has to affect their spending,” he said.

That in turn affects Pape and his work force, now down to two from four. He acknowledged that he had to cut back on the things he purchases for his store. “We’re working with our vendors to try and keep our costs as low as we can,” he said.

The corporate CEO (via Crain’s New York):

“In the United States, we’ve got 1.5% economic growth, the euro zone is not growing, the emerging markets are not emerging as fast as they had been before,” [CEO James] Tisch said Monday on a conference call to discuss Loews’ quarterly results. “You don’t see anybody expressing optimism about what’s going on in the economy either here in the United States or overseas.”