Gas went up a quarter here in Atlanta and they were interviewing people at gas stations already talking about “gas above $2″ and they are already changing their habits again and even re-evaluating vacation driving plans.

I believe that the economic downturn abounds in opportunities for new creative ways that we can model our personal lives to be more fulfilling, that is not as dependent on financial wealth. Some of these include following our passions, spending more quality time with family and friends, becoming more resilient and re-prioritizing key aspects of our lives, reflecting on and shifting our core values, lifestyles and spending habits, reaching out and helping others, even when our personal financial situation is deteriorating

Recently, I found it extremely helpful during the economic downturn to create a positive attitude by participating in the “upside to the downturn” community group including a weekly Starting Your Week on the Upside column. It’s a place where folks are sharing insights and stories about how they are creating an upside and improving their lives in spite of the downturn. Check it out: http://www.upsidetothedownturn.com/

Plenty of people are going to get hurt again soon. But clearly bear market psychology (lurching from despair to hope and back again) is in full control. Combine that with spectacular speculation going on in every piece of junk stock out there right now and the trend followers reinforcing the trend, and this thing wraps tighter and tighter, until it doesn’t and the trend followers all run to the other side of the boat.

It seems that some market internals are very interesting here. A lot of high quality names (and the whole tech sector i.e. Naz) are sagging while junk levitates. The financials are in a parabolic rise and we know how those end (crashing wave anybody?).

Hussman invests in high quality companies (strong balance sheet, cash flow, etc.) and none of the bank sector and has been tightly hedged here. So his daily performance figures reflect his relative performance to the market. So you can get a sense for what’s going on re: high quality vs. low quality. He (and yes I) took a 2+ % hit yesterday while the market was clearly up. That right there tells you a bit about what’s going on in the market. I’m half expecting an interesting comment and research piece from him on that topic this weekend. A healthy market it’s clearly not.