>Say said it best: when there's not enough cash available to satisfy desires, people find ways around it. If you can arrange to be that way, you can still profit.

The only way I'm able to interpret this as practical advice is "invest in the mafia". Unless you're talking about building up your personal skills - which, while good advice (if you can do something other people want then you'll never go hungry, no matter how bad the economy), doesn't really scale.