As Jeff Matthews noted some time back, you can learn an awful lot by reading your mail.

What's my mail telling me now?

• Credit is still quite available if you have a good credit rating. Rates aren't even that mucch higher. The offers keep piling up. As Jeff Saut noted a few weeks ago, we've been experiencing a collateral crunch, not a credit crunch. Those who have decent collateral have access to credit. New offers show up every day.
• The satellite radio companies are in trouble. Sirius (NasdaqGS:SIRI) has been spamming me by email, phone and snail mail over their recent and recently-extended promotion to receive a second receiver free. I already have two of the things: one in the car and one portable, yet they have spent a significant chunk of money to try to get me to buy a third. Using expensive phone and snail-mail marketing directed at existing shareholders is not a sign of a strong growing market. My guess is that increasing penetration into the vehicle markets is not helping all that much, and the other "low hanging fruit" are already on board as well.

  So they're spamming guys like me hoping that we'll buy a second, third or fourth receiver for a friend, girlfriend, or somebody else who won't pay the full purchase and subscription fee, but who might be willing to piggy-back on an existing account for $6.95 per month. It's effectively an admission that the prices they have been charging are too high for a large segment of the potential market. The stock has popped a bit recently, and I'd be selling if I owned. The possibility that a merger of Sirius with XM radio (NasdaqGS:XMSR) is the primary factor that would keep me from being short the stock at this point, though I think that one is still likely to be a non-starter.

• American Express (NYSE:AXP) wants me to use my Membership Rewards points on new promotions by their home decorating and other retail partners, including Bloomingdales, Home Depot, Restoration Hardware, Crate and Barrel, Linens and Things, Saks, Fortunoff, Pottery Barn and Williams Sonoma. They're also offering me double points on all purchases at Fortunoff and Home Depot. Historically, these deals have been offered when things are weak for the promoted companies. I'd take any positive statements about the condition of retail in general and home decorating/renovation chains in particular with a grain of salt right now.
• The letters and postcards from Miami realtors got increasingly desperate until about two weeks ago, then stopped completely. Guess they all went back to being strippers or something. A bottom? Wouldn't bet on it just yet.

-btc