If there can be said to be any advantages to the current miserable economic climate, it might be that those of us who still have enough spare cash for consumer spending are getting more for our dollars.
This has not been such a shopper's paradise for years. And there has never been a better time to eat out.
As tonight's Hong Kong Connection (Pearl, 6.50pm), Going Cheap and Cheerful shows these are desperately hard times for the restaurant business.
Hundreds of restaurants have already closed down and despite the Hang Seng's phoenix-like qualities of late, it is probable many more will fail in the near future.
Those that have survived, and even prospered, have often done so by going for the bottom end of the market. The programme asks restaurant owners - and restaurant clients - just how this is going to help.
CNNI are rightly proud of getting an interview with Malaysian Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
He will be appearing on Biz Asia (CNNI, 9.30pm) with regular host Lorraine Hahn. The choice of programme suggests that he prefers to talk about economic policy rather than locking up former deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim and we must all hope that Hahn does not waste this great opportunity by allowing him to get away with that.
