Highwaymen consumers.

Whoever wrote this has a keen sense of the obvious.

It's kinda sorta clumsily written, but you get the idea. People won't spend.
Decorative things for the home ? Don't need em right now.

What a great time to invest in art. Demand is low for collectible art in affordable ranges.
In the non-affordable art market, Picasso still brings 100 million +.......

Here's the link from AOL.

After years of conspicuous consumption when it came to our homes and what we put in them, Americans are rethinking their priorities in the recession-induced Age of Austerity and paring down their possessions and what they spend.

A minute later, I saw this related story on AOL.

Consumers Still Not Spending
More Americans are cutting corners on the little things, according to Harris Interactive. Where are they saving?
Nearly two-thirds are buying generic brands more often.
48 percent are brown-bagging lunch.
31 percent have canceled magazine subscriptions.
24 percent are cutting back on dry cleaning.
22 percent have canceled cable television.
22 percent no longer buy coffee in the morning.
15 percent have canceled their landline phone service and changed or canceled their cell phone service.
All these figures are up slightly since the last Harris poll in February, showing that despite some signs of economic recovery, people are still reluctant to go back to their free-spending ways.
Are these changes temporary or a permanent shift in consumer behavior? Businesses may need to give their customers incentives to come back and start spending with them again.

The incentive I give you gentle readers, is lower prices.

And, I'll buy you a coffee. Promise.