I am really not sure whether I am in a recession, repression, remission or depression! There is so much to think about and worry about, things are shrinking and sliding and that’s just the effects of the market! When will normality return, when can I fret about my waistline and lack of a 12 pack and not have to think about global issues such as the nuclear war ships and wind power. (By the way 6 packs are for children, us over 40’s have 12, 24 and 36 packs!)
Day in and day out I read stories that defy belief, stories that embarrass me in their incredulity and general ignorance. Please tell me how a bank can be saved from insolvency with 21bn of tax payer’s money and then £1bn is immediately used to pay incompetent manager’s bonuses?
Stop, stop there is just too much of this now, the stories are almost too ridiculous to discuss, and they are even more ridiculous because they are actually fact.
So here we are and the whole world is now in recession, whatever that means. I say whatever that means because apparently it now means something different to what it meant in the 20’s and 30’s, not my 20’s and 30’s but those mythical 20’™s and 30’s when everything was apparently really, really bad and every window still had more jumpers than pigeons!
Fact, recession now means two quarters of negative growth, ok big deal everyone’s got one already and even really boring places like Iceland are in recession and having riots. Ok, a riot in Iceland only means eggs thrown at five yards and their riot police are about as scary as Rotpoodles, but it’s still grim to those who live on that very chilly black quarry!
But the race is truly on now amongst the big boys to hit the big D, yes who can be in Depression first, who can be officially, As bad as it’s been since the 20’s and 30’s who can be officially as bad as its been in 70 years and a nation needing Prozac?
You see its now all about 24 Hour News ratings. The idiot news channels that can summarize the entire political, entertainment and sporting world in 15 minutes, Every 15 minutes. These guys need sound bites and all the better if that sound then bites into you and your soul, all the better if it helps drive down your confidence because with that they are guaranteed a Depression, both yours and your countries.
A true depression is a 10% decline in the annual rate of DGP (Gross Domestic Product), this just may be around the corner for some economies and it will, no doubt, fill thousands of hours on our TV’s, all split into 15 minutes of insightful rubbish, when it arrives.
All we can do is look to ourselves, stay in quality, stay calm and realise that if we all take a conservative way forward we will emerge in one piece. Be that in one, three or five years time!