Saturday, October 2, 2010
The Recession is Over, but Pessimism Still Reigns
In this article Americans are said to have extremely low consumer confidence due to the current recession. Even though it may appear to be over people are still holding on to their money because they are still pessimistic in their views of where are economy is heading. Compared to other recessions this the only one where people expected their own incomes to fall. This pessimism is said to have been caused also by the poor performance of major asset categories. An now due to the low confidence people are depending a lot more on their stocks because more people see there retirement depending upon their own investments.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
The pessimism can also be seen through the stock market. The gold price has remain on a constant increase to its current $132 per ounce. Historically, gold market always soared when investors were not certain about the financial market. As a result, gold, a deemed tangible asset, had always been selected to maintain the financial value.
This article makes me question whether our political debates, not just policy decisions, can drastically impact the economy. If one side of the debate has an interest in making the other look like a poor manager of the economy, which they always do, then they have an interest in projecting a gloomy outlook about the economy. This messaging impacts consumers, and they spend or save more as a result of what they're hearing. It makes me think that the government might always have an interest in projecting a more optimistic outlook. If the government lies to project a better economy, is that ethically wrong if it leads to more consumer spending and more jobs?
It is smart for people to take the initiative to plan for there retirement on there own. This way if something fails with there retirement plan they will have something to fall back on. I also agree that people are not spending the money that they used too. It is going to take a while for them to get the confidence back. This was a major recession that we have gone through. These things take time to fix, but it will happen eventually. The spending has increased and there is a good outlook on the holiday season, but not like has been in the past before the recession.
Post a Comment