In a previous post entitled "Which Way is Southeast Construction Heading?," I wondered about the overall direction of the Southeast's construction market. This summer, it appeared to be showing signs of life, but then numerous negatives began to pop up, such as the debt-ceiling debate in Washington, D.C.

Now, last week's downgrade of the United States' credit-worthiness by Standard & Poor's -- like Engineering News-Recrd, a division of the McGraw-Hill Cos. -- has caused further financial jitters.

I'm not going to go further with my comments. Instead, I'm looking for your perspective on the potential impact of the latest economic turmoil.

Please consider offering your comments below. Sharing your insights with construction and design peers can perhaps help further industry understanding of what's happening throughout the region.

Here are some questions to consider: Has the recent economic news dampened the appetite of developers to move forward with projects? Has there been a (further) negative impact on lending activity yet? What about impacts to bonding capacity? What do you think the overall impact may be? And any other insights you might have....

Readers may continue to comment anonymously -- though we always encourage identifying yourself. However, if you choose to provide comments anonymously, for the purposes of this blog post, we would greatly appreciate it if you could indicate the general region you're located in, and whether you're a contractor, designer, etc.

I hope to hear your comments soon!

On Twitter: @SEConstruction, or @ENRNews.