Worldwide indexes reclaim that losing feeling,  The skinny on those TARP repayments and two curiously conflicting assessments,Four factories for one McMinimum Wage house and plenty more…

“Are things getting worse or are things getting better?” we wondered aloud in yesterday’s edition of the Rude Awakening.

In today’s edition, we provide a few answers – well, not answers, really…just observations from you, the Rude readership. In the column below, we present a few real-world anecdotes from Rude Awakening readers. This narrow sampling of economic observations is hardly scientific, but it may be illuminating nonetheless.

Before we get into these real-world stories, let’s examine a couple of recent stories from Fantasyland - otherwise known as Wall Street. Seven of America’s largest banks repaid their TARP borrowings to the US Treasury yesterday, in the process providing one more occasion for hopeful investors to proclaim the end of the credit crisis.