Richard Quest’s Profitable Moment from Atlanta, Georgia

Much of last week was spent in the southern US city of Atlanta, at CNN Center, our Global headquarters. After my rather gloomy Profitable Moment last week, I'd hoped moderate temperatures and the southern outlook would be more palatable. In some ways it was.

The southern fried chicken I enjoyed at a local restaurant was delicious. And the bread pudding for dessert required hours at the gym afterwards. I really should have asked for the recipe, even though making it would be way beyond my kitchen skills.

The sputtering economy in the south, however was not quite as tasty. I am sorry to report, it was still tinged with the bitter tastes.

My good friend, who is in real estate, was relieved to tell me that, properties were at last coming onto the market, but at unrealistic prices. Even when there were potential buyers, they could not obtain mortgages. The lending crunch is still strong for all except the most creditworthy. He is working twice as hard to make half as much.

Having heard his anecdotes, I was not surprised to see this confirmed with figures showing sales of previously owned homes falling 7.2 per cent in January to the lowest level since last summer.

Other friends, who work in retail, told me that the year had started off badly. Without discounts, shoppers were not shopping. Looking at the week's numbers, this was confirmed by consumer confidence data from the Conference Board (a fall back to levels seen last April) and the Michigan consumer sentiment numbers – both of which revealed an increasing concern about the future.