Economic turmoil

So lately the news has been filled with doom and gloom reports of federal bailouts and the Dow at levels it hasn't seen in nearly a generation, Christmas sales are going to be horrible and the world is a very scary place in our economy.
But I think that for those of us the spend every dollar anyway, and who are forced to make choices in how we spend that money, who have pretty secure jobs, and don't gawk at the graph of our 401k's value (if we even have one), this is a much friendlier climate... $1.75/gallon gas frees up a lot of monies that were going into the tank just 5 months ago!