Signs the economy is bad, August 6 edition

Welcome to another edition of "Signs that the economy is bad" here at The Itinerant Librarian. This is the semi-regular (as in when I feel like it or have time to do it) where I scour the Web, so you don't have to, looking for those oh so subtle hints that the economy is bad. Any pundit on TV or radio can tell you the usual: unemployment blah blah, consumers spending less yadda yadda, housing market tanking ya ya, you get the idea. Here we go for the stories that seem to slip past the "experts." So, let's see what we have this week: 

• Robbers complain that places they rob did not yield enough money.  Yes, a robber actually called back the place he held up to complain that he did not get enough loot when he stopped by to rob it earlier. 
• People are still drinking, which is good for the liquor industry. That's not the problem. The problem, well for some people, is that folks now are doing most if not all of their drinking at home. As if downgrading their beer selections was not bad enough. Personally, I do prefer to drink at home with the better half, or at the home of other family members. Let's be honest, buying some bottles of decent booze and making your own cocktails at home is a lot cheaper in the long run, and you don't have to tip the bartender (of course, if the better half is moved to tip her "bartender," that is certainly appreciated). Also, in this day and age finding good recipes for cocktails is not too hard. We have a couple of good books at home, and there is always the Internet. Thus there is no reason to be going out to barhop and spend an inflated price on a drink when you can make it at home. That is, unless barhopping is your thing.
• Armed services recruiting tends to go up in bad economic times. I usually don't point it out because it is a pretty obvious sign that the economy is bad.  Here in the U.S. recruitment is going up. However, it does not work like that around the world. In some cases, a lot of new recruits is a bad thing, and it qualifies as a sign that the economy is bad. When you run out of money to pay those recruits, like the Dutch and their army, that's a problem. 
• You pretend a dead relative is still alive in order to keep collecting his pension. Now, I will admit this was a bit of a stretch, since it seems the guy died 30 years ago, but I think it counts. It turns that the "oldest man" alive died 30 years ago in Japan.