Mined with EC2 for a couple of days. How do people get the economics to work? Far cheaper (x4) to just buy off the exchange... unless I'm missing something

all depends on the efficiency of your software, CPU + GPU.
But we're about to downsize our operation as well, we've hit rock bottom concerning the profitability.
Can this coin be gpu mined? I haven't seen a miner... gpu might be viable (depending on hashrate).