A little recession talk*

I just read an article in Business Week about whether we Americans are talking ourselves into a recession. The author argued that the media can’t make a good economy into a bad one, but maybe it can drive a struggling economy down even further.

Well I think that’s obvious. I know what kind of stories I will see in the business section when I open the paper every morning – the same stories about rising foreclosures and falling prices. It’s the same every day. It’s not like those kind of stories make people confident in our economy; they do the opposite. They inspire fear.

But the thing is, to a degree we should be afraid of the stupid decisions we’ve made. It’s not the media’s fault that most people are in piles of credit card debt. It’s not the media’s fault that we felt we needed to be in a home when we weren’t financially prepared for such a large obligation. And it’s not the media’s fault that the market is correcting like it always does.

So can we say recession? I don’t think there’s anything wrong with stating the fact that our economic prosperity has receded from its normal levels. We just don’t need to pound it into everybody’s head with a media sledgehammer. The author of the article asks, ‘where are the upbeat tales’? They’re out there, but you won’t find them on the front page of the newspaper. We all know that that kind of news wouldn’t sell.

I think we can blame the media a little, ourselves a little, and businesses a little. But better yet, let’s get past the blame and the gloomy front page stories and work on doing the best we can to get positive.

*My service doesn’t stop here! In addition to maintaining The Salt Lake City Utah Real Estate Blog, I also help people buy and sell homes in Utah. When you need help with either of these, contact me!

Tags: recession,U.S. economy,Business Week,credit crisis

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