Does a Poor Economy Affect Technical Innovation?

sshuber writes: "It's no secret that the USA and other parts of the world are currently having some economy problems. How is this affecting new technologies under development? With the large amount of layoffs, are we seeing projects, such as things under R&D, that are being axed? Are companies playing it safe and sticking with what they know sells in lieu of pushing the envelope? Finally, how is this affecting the open source community, either positively or negatively?"