At the Edison furniture store Comer Steinbridge's desk was covered in a heap of pennies, nickels and dimes, which he was slowly placing in neat piles alongside his sturdy copy of the Bible.

“I've always been careful with my money,” said the shop owner in Homestead, which is an hour's drive from Miami through development that sprawled south when the property bubble inflated.

His trouble, right now, is that his credit-crunched customers are becoming similarly frugal.

“Sales are slow, very slow,” he said, with a little shake of his head. “People are worried about what is happening in the economy, they don't want to buy.”

Mr Steinbridge, 84, has been in business since 1943 and thinks that he must have experienced times that were worse than these — but cannot remember when exactly.

Outside the clouds were dark and thick with warm rain. Inside the shop was empty.

There were signs on the walls offering zero per cent financing on purchases, passages of Scripture and a signed photograph from John McCain and Sarah Palin

Does he really think the Republican nominee will save him? “He is a good man, but I can't say if he will pull us through this one,” Mr Steinbridge replied.

Across the road Joe Scioli, a builder specialising in swimming pool construction, has not been seen this month. A woman in the office next door said: “He's gone. His business ain't too good.”

Other shops were boarded up and being offered for discounted rent. The Western Union office had a large red sign offering “payroll advance” of up to $500 (£288).

This was only one snapshot of an American Main Street yesterday. Homestead was torn down by Hurricane Andrew in 1992 and is now bracing itself for another storm.

The epic presidential campaign grinds its way to its climax with attention — for the first time in 18 months — suddenly fixed elsewhere. Mr McCain and Barack Obama struggled to find empathy while debating spending plans, which may be rendered irrelevant by the time that one of them reaches the Oval Office.

Travel 1,000 miles northwest of Homestead and you arrive in Tennessee — a state that epitomises the US love affair with the car and where a shiny Chevrolet or red Corvette is often regarded as more important than a house. People can no longer get the bank loans they have always relied on to buy one, however.

Joey Huffines has been selling Jeeps and pick-up trucks at Southeast Automotive near Nashville for more than 20 years.

“Six months ago banks were loaning customers more than the value of the vehicle. People were buying cars without any of their own money. That has suddenly stopped. The banks are not doing that crazy stuff any more. Our business is off, compared to a year ago, by 40 per cent,” he said.

Last week Bill Heard, the largest Chevrolet dealer in the US, shut its entire franchise across the country, making 3,500 people redundant.

“There's a lot of car dealerships that will be out of business in a few months,” Mr Huffines said. “There are a lot that are debt-ridden. They are not long for this world.”

At Neil Sandler, a Buick and Pontiac dealership in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, the turndown rate for car loans has soared to 30 per cent.

One salesman at a truck outlet in Nashville said that it was almost impossible to have vehicle loans approved because “the banks are scared to death of them”.

Stephanie Pepper, of the city's chamber of commerce, said that many banks were having difficulties making loans because their assets had been almost completely frozen. “They have no liquidity,” she said.

As the banks run out of money, thousands of people across America face homelessness through no fault of their own.

A sheriff in Cook County, Chicago, refused this week to evict tenants who had kept up with their rent on homes that were repossessed because the landlord had defaulted on the mortgage. “We will no longer be a party to something that's so unjust,” Thomas Dart, the sheriff, said.

“We have to be sure that when we are doing this — and we are destroying some people's lives — we better be darned sure we're talking about the right people.”

Some tenants dutifully paid their rent, he said, then returned from work to find their belongings, or what remained of them, at the kerb.

On the streets of Chicago the mood was as bleak as the wintry wind that was already blowing in off the cold, grey waters of Lake Michigan.

Brad Huffman, 42, who runs Frank's Barber Shop under the elevated railway near the financial district, said: “Everyone knows they have lost money as far as their retirement funds are concerned, and they know the worst is not over. They are cutting back for Christmas and hoping they still have a job in the New Year.”

Tom Friedheim, 63, works three days a week for a risk management company and had planned to retire soon. Now, he said, the value of his pension had fallen so far that he would probably have to work for another four or five years.

“Am I angry? Yes, I am angry,” he said as he walked off through a canyon between the downtown skyscrapers in Chicago.

“I'm worried. I don't know what to expect. I don't know how much worse it's going to get,” Tamara Earley, a divorcée in her early forties who works for the government, said.

She has delayed buying a new drier, has turned her thermostat down, may stop buying organic foods and plans errands better so that she drives less. She would like to visit her grandmother in Florida or her brother in Tennessee but says that if she goes on holiday it will be “some place local”.

Back in Homestead, Tommy Legato, 54, the general manager of a motor-mechanics company, said that business was down 20 per cent in the past month. “We're seeing tyres that need replacing but people put it off — they can't afford it,” he said.

He was turned down for a home loan recently even though he had an excellent credit rating. “Suddenly we're all having to jump through hoops,” he added.

Hector Hernandez at the El Toro Taco restaurant said that he had noticed the absence of some of his elderly customers who could no longer pay for meals out.

“We all have to re-evaluate how we run our businesses. I don't turn the air-conditioning and the lights on until the evening. We have to keep costs down. The businesses that will survive are the smart ones, you know,” he said, tapping the side of his head.

Florida is a swing state in the election and he is one voter who has lost faith in Republicans. “I thought Bush had people who were paid to figure these things out - whose job it was to see this coming. Maybe I will vote for Obama because the sun is shining a little more on the other side of the road.”

A mile away the retail giant Wal-Mart was slashing prices to $10 on a range of toys, including Barbies and Hot Wheels, for Christmas. KB toys and Target have announced that they are following suit.

Christina Valdes was being dragged through the toy department by her son Brian, 6. “Right now I'm being a bit more careful with my money, he just wants to buy junk,” Mrs Valdes said.

Brian held up a Spider-man lap-top computer. “How much is it?” his mother asked. “$30? Do you think that's good value?” Even Brian looked doubtful.

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