We are seeing some interesting patterns with mcdonalds announcing strong results despite the downturn. Forbes has gone so far as to suggest it's all because of McDonalds' "recession-proof menu" but the picture is more complicated than that.

As a rule, discretionary spending tends to be the first thing to go in a downturn but the problem is that discretionary spending means different things to different people. Furthermore, some are still spending but they are putting their money into things that have more special meaning during these hard times. I look at that trend in my piece here.