Colorado is ranked No. 11 in economic performance among states based on a variety of indicators, including disposable income and poverty and unemployment rates. That's according to a study by Pacific Research Institute, a free-market think tank cited in a report by the Denver Business Journal [2]. Yet figures don't reveal the emotions expressed by those who are struggling at the bottom. Keenly aware of that fact, The Washington Post deployed a scribe and photographer to travel the nation to see how Americans are getting by in a chronicle called, "Half a Tank: Along Recession Road [3]." The team hit Colorado this week to examine the recession's impact on the mining industry [4], where the "miner sits high on the financial totem pole. If he falls, everyone beneath him feels it." The Post also profiles a family [5] that lost their business and home in Michigan and moved back in with family in Colorado. The Denver Post [6] recently featured personal stories related to the economy as well, sending photographer Joe Amon to the unemployment office in Capitol Hill, where he spoke with the jobless and underemployed.