Not Your Imagination; ‘Experts’ Announce Recession Is Real

So the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) has reported that the U.S. economy is in recession. Um, did we really need that declaration to validate what anyone with even the most passing fancy for economics or rudimentary knowledge of financial markets has long ago surmised – and likely somehow been personally affected by already? It’s like a weatherman reporting on gusty conditions as the roof is ripped off the studio. Seems to me this group is more about repression than recession. This “breaking news” conjures up the Saturday Night Live News Update segment routine called “Really?!” in which Amy Poehler and Seth Meyers disbelievingly recount and poke fun at a recent hair-brained action or cockamamie scheme hatched by some ill-advised schmo.

Do these NBER people exist in the land of make believe amid the plum fairies and gingerbread houses? Hey gents, this also just in: the earth ain’t flat, fat meat is greasy and the Detroit Lions aren’t a lock on the Super Bowl. What clued these incisive academics in to the recession? Was it the total collapse of the housing market? Maybe the rapid rise in unemployment? Perhaps the global devaluation of the U.S. dollar? Runaway oil prices earlier this year? Could it be Wall Street resembling a Six Flags attraction? I know; the utter failure of the banking industry? Pray tell is it the threatened demise of the auto-making industry? Then there’s always those major retailers that have been shuddering stores across the nation; could that be the determinate? And so on …

It just sickens me the way fat cats, politicians and others who stand the most to lose if there is a shake-up to the status quo are the ones who slowest to outwardly acknowledge when there is something seriously wrong and endlessly spout rhetoric and lies. The recession is here, it has been here, it is already the worst this country has faced since the early 1980s and could erase the Great Depression. We need to devise, work on, implement, modify and reinforce sensible solutions immediately before we hit rock-bottom.

Do I have the answers? No, that is not my forte, but I believe there are lots of smart financial people in this great nation of ours and abroad who do. Hopefully additional damage before President-Elect Obama takes office in another couple of months will be minimal and our new leader is incisive enough in letting the best qualified advisors lift us all out of the economic doldrums. I for one have had enough of gloom and doom; it is time for us to jettison the negativity and defeatist attitudes and restore what America stands for as the land of freedom, opportunity and prosperity for ALL. Fortunately, as I have said many times before, the security industry is weathering this downturn better than most and we all need to be extremely grateful to be in such a vital and vibrant industry.

Now back to those academic masters of the obvious, I understand they plan to recognize global warming as an official phenomenon just as soon as Antarctica becomes a beach resort destination …

As always, thanks for reading.

Scott Goldfine

Editor-in-Chief

SECURITY SALES & INTEGRATION