The same day that Heartland RV opened a new manufacturing facility in Elkhart, Indiana, GE Money announced it was getting out of the consumer RV and marine lending business. Heartland’s news is encouraging for an industry seeing the full-force of the consumer belt-tightening of the past year.

The GE Money news looks to be an indicator of just how hard these discretionary income sensitive segments are being hit.

"The decision is yet another in a string of developments -- diminishing home values, higher gas prices, weaker consumer confidence -- that has 2008 on pace to be the worst year since 1992," Craig Kennison of Robert W. Baird & Co. wrote in a Monday note to clients.

Kennison also said GE Money, a division of General Electric Co., plans to cut ties with Thor Industries Inc.'s finance unit, Thor Credit. The subsidiary added $1.5 million in referral fees to the company's bottom line last year. Kennison said Thor will look to team up with another financial institution, as it has previously partnered with Bank of Boston and E-Trade Financial Corp. On Monday, Thor named Christian G. Farman senior vice president and chief financial officer. Current Executive Vice President and CFO Walter L. Bennett becomes executive vice president and chief administrative officer

And as Winnebago’s new Chairman Bob Olson takes the reins at Winnebago, he says he’s “optimistic about the long-term” for the industry. But he’s not making any rosy projections for the immediate future.

He also admits the Forest City, Iowa-based Winnebago is facing a myriad of issues: plunging consumer confidence, high gas prices; uncertainty caused by the perceived national housing crisis and the upcoming presidential election.

As Olson told the Forest City Summit: “We have money in the bank, we have an excellent inventory-control program and we make the best motor homes. I've seen us go through downturns before, and just like before, we will come out of it.”

Winnebago has continued to turn a small profit, but has also trimmed the workforce by about 200 workers over the past year. Trimming further’s not a measure Olson rules out for the future – if it became necessary. “If things don’t change from an economy standpoint,” Olson says, “we have to do things for the health of the company. We either reduce our cost structure or find ways to generate revenue.”

He doesn’t rule out any measure – or series of measures, from temporary shutdowns to permanent layoffs. “We meet every day,” he says, “and I mean every day – to go over the numbers.”

But he remains optimistic, despite what he calls an economic situation that is overblown by the national media.

“Winnebago,” he says, “has been around a long, long time. As tough as it has been recently, when the market turns we are better situated than anyone to take advantage of it.”

The recreational industry- especially the big-ticket items, are the first to feel the pinch on a consumer’s wallet. As the national media continues to pound the economic topic with an almost relentless litany of bad news, it could once again turn out that the proponents of gloom-and-doom may get their wish.

Personally, I’d take no economic news as good news.