It is said that you know you’re in a Recession when your neighbor gets laid-off and in a Depression when you get laid-off. If your one of millions who has been laid-off recently, I don’t need to tell you how desperate, and stressed-out you must be feeling right now. You know it and I know… I’ve been there. Remember the Internet Bubble of 2000 and 2001? I was a victim of it, I lived it. The difference was that it was relegated to a single industry. This time around virtually every sector and industry of our economy has been negatively impacted. Key among them is Financial Institutions, Automotive and Housing. Hundreds of thousands of jobs have been lost and Homes foreclosed by the thousands. Seems like every decade we have been in some sort of a recession at some point. Are you old enough to remember the long Gas lines of the late ‘70’s when Gas was rationed and you could only purchase Gas on certain days of the week? How about the high interest rates of the early ‘80’s? I purchased my first Town Home when rates were as high as 18%! Do you remember that in the early ‘90’s that hundreds of Auto Dealers had their doors shuttered overnight because people couldn’t afford or where unable to buy a car. Let’s us also never forget the day in American infamy 9/11/01 and the financial disaster brought upon our country at that time. Through it all and each time we’ve rebounded like the Phoenix rising from the ashes, and so too shall we rise. Personally speaking I think the flames of our burning economy are showing signs of flaming out. No doubt that hot embers of this debacle will exist for awhile yet to come but soon they too will disappear. I read recently that Housing starts for January’09 has climbed +22%. A friend of a friend who works in the steel industry recently expressed that their selling more steel to the Auto manufactures. Citigroup, JP Morgan/Chase and Bank of America all reported first quarter profits. These are all good signs and do offer a glimmer of hope. Still we won’t be in a full recovery mode until people start getting hired into new jobs and Banks stop hoarding the cash it has received from our government’s stimulus package and start releasing it to those who can afford to buy a home or a new car but can’t get credit because their FICA scores aren’t in the mid-700 range. I believe that’s pretty much Main Street USA, America - where Joe the Plumber,Tony the Electrician or Grace the Mortgage Estimator live. Until they get back on their feet we all will continue to feel the fatigue and sleepless nights that go into worrying about what each day will bring forth to us. Fear not as this too shall come to pass. Let’s do keep our glimmer of hope alive.
God Bless.
