Have doom and gloom taken a temporary holiday?
by Adam J. Kovitz
Entrepreneurs, by nature, are used to the wild up and down nature of being in the business of high risk/high reward, but even those amongst us with the highest of intestinal fortitude have been challenged in recent weeks due to several factors:
1.) The knock-down, dragged out legislative battle over over the raising of the U.S. debt ceiling
2.) The unprecedented downgrade of the U.S. treasury bond rating from AAA to AA+ by one of the three major ratings agencies (S&P)
3.) A deflated housing market that is showing slow (if any) signs of recovery
4.) Unemployment averaging 9%, which does not include underemployment, recently graduated from college but not employed and those who have just given up looking
5.) China, the up-and-coming economic world power who holds on to a substantial portion of U.S. debt warning us to watch ourselves and our "addiction to debt"
6.) The major earthquake and nuclear disaster in Japan a few months ago
7.) Europe has been having their own economic instabilities and there's rioting in London.
But I've been shocked over the past few days, things haven't looked as dark as they have in the news and media. It's almost as if we've been conditioned to take our daily dose of doom and gloom and simply eat it, but now it's being withheld from us. What the heck?
Just when I expect to see a major environmental, meteorological, political and/or economic catastrophe in the news, I am seeing that perhaps hell, has indeed, been frozen over:
1.) One of the world's wealthiest men begging Congress to tax him and "his kind" even more (Stop Coddling the Super-Rich)
2.) Consumers are getting better at curbing their own addiction to debt (Household debt falls slightly)
3.) Foreclosures rates are falling (Foreclosures fall for 10th straight month)
4.) China and the U.S. have more of a symbiotic relationship than either would care to admit (China's not doing us a favor)
5.) There are less people claiming unemployment (Claims for unemployment aid fall to a four-month low)
Is this the start of the major turnaround in our global economic crisis? Can we all start breaking out in "Happy Days are Here Again"?
Or...
Are doom and gloom just doing the summer thing that most everyone else is and simply taking a temporary holiday? Perhaps with the economy the way it is, they might even be taking a "stay-cation".
Either way...it's a nice change of pace after the long rash of doomsday-esque headlines.
As entrepreneurs, we need to find victories, no matter how small or seemingly-inconsequential, wherever and whenever we can.
All my best,
Adam
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