Nope.
My computer broke broke around January, and something is seriously wrong. I've played about four times this week, and the place is a ghostown. I'm looking for why on the forums, but my guess (and looking at the ESI prices,) is that Mindark did something to seriously pi$$ off a lot of players at roughly the same time, so there was a mass exodus of players.
Without enough players, there can't be a working economy. Without a working economy, the game is dead.
However, this is an ideal time if you want deals. I would assume that you can get stuff at a third or cheaper MU than even a few months ago. Skills will probably drop even further in prices if you go that route.
As far as playing goes, I mainly mine nowadays, and returns have been a consistent 50% tt, not including amps and decay. On about 10 200 ped mining runs, I've broken even maybe 2 times, profited once, and taken 50% or less on the rest. The times I went amped my guess would be 25% or worse.
$1k is plenty if you want to get back in. Lvl 39 in a decent wep is plenty. I would recommend gremlin + 5b's (unless armor changed, pixie is most efficient with 2a's,) and the best L weapon you have maxxed out. After level 29 or so, you can just go with like an Apis till level 80. $1k is like several months of naked mining too, just get a plane with a space thruster. I would definitely not recommend crafting. You can lose your shirt fastest of any profession, if making the $1k last is what you want to do.