Seeking Alpha Seeking Alpha Portfolio App for iPad  Over last
weekend, Econintersect issued its October 2012 economic index.
The October index value had dropped precipitously - the largest
one month drop since January 2009. However the index was not
(yet?) indicating Main Street was in a recession. One reader
offered an observation:  ….that the middle class (say the middle
30 percentiles) have been in recession even while the economy
has grown because of disparities in growth in income and the
relative proportions of financial/business assets owned by the
top say 10% compared to home values in 2006.  To understand the
suffering/loss of many people a patchwork analysis is required.
Totals (particularly without being on a per capita basis and by
industry, employment type, education/skill level or age ),
averages and medians (without quintile breakdowns) are
meaningless to such large swathes of the population as to be
meaningless in the "new normal", "patchwork" economy.  To me, it
seems that there is a lack of