Construction industry woes not all gloom and doom

This morning Bloomberg.com released a report regarding the state of the construction industry. That report provides a fairly gray view of the state of our nation's home builders. Home construction is in the process of posting a third straight year of declines and has surpassed even the direst of economic analyst predictions. For a good quick analysis of the report, read the synopsis by BloggingStocks writer Joseph Lazzaro.

However, in the midst of the weeping, I submit for your approval the assertion that this situation is not all gloom and doom. It's not to be taken for granted that the country is speckled with an endless array of hale and hearty carpenters just sitting on their hammers. We need to remind ourselves that our construction industry represents some of the best of our independent capitalist spirit. In most cases these folks aren't just giving up. They are weighing their options and changing gears.