Posted on 08/15/2009 6:05:00 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
The U.S. economy is in such bad shape that the loss of (just) a quarter-million jobs in July was greeted as good news. Long-term unemployment and foreclosures continue to mount in the worst economic downturn since the 1930s. Health-care costs are out of control. An aging population around the globe is driving government spending through the roof.
[...]
But before you assume a purely defensive posture—knees pulled to chest, hands on head—remember this: Just as people become overly exuberant in good times, they tend to get too pessimistic in bad times. While the economy remains deep in a hole, and could indeed get worse, the truth is that nobody really knows what will happen next. Prudence demands that you prepare yourself for all possible outcomes, including some highly positive ones.
Anything could happen, right? It was the inventor Thomas A. Edison who said, "We don't know a millionth of 1% about anything." Latter-day management expert Paul J.H. Schoemaker, founder and executive chairman of Decision Strategies International, a consultancy in Conshohocken, Pa., agrees. "Just as the downside surprised many people, the upside might also come as a surprise to people,"
[...]
In other words, you owe it to yourself at least to consider the case for optimism. No, not starry-eyed, Panglossian optimism. We're simply arguing that practical people should open their minds to the opportunities to be seized just as much as to the dangers to be dodged. As futurist Esther Dyson of EDventure Holdings put it in one of the many interviews we conducted for this Special Issue: "Part of being optimistic means you really need to understand the problem and be cynical enough that you're not foolishly optimistic. Then you're not disappointed when things don't work out.
(Excerpt) Read more at businessweek.com ...
I know I'm upbeat after that paragraph.
Unexpectedly it was better than expected by the stockbrokers who expected it might be worse than expected that the expected job loss would be expected to be better than expected.
Business Week can shove it.
The liberal hacks didn’t seem to find any reason to be SMART and OPTIMISTIC when Bush was president. But now, as Hussein spends us into oblivion, they want us to be optimistic?
Reminds me of Squealer in “Animal Farm”.
BW is just as liberal as the rest of the LameStream Media.
The second mouse always gets the cheese...
Kudlow is a good man. Recovery, though, was going to COME ANYWAY according the Congressional Budget Office.
Back in February, before the PORKULUS passed, CBO issued a report saying the economy would be recovering by 3Q of 2009...and would be in better shape overall if the federal government DID NOT PASS the PORK bill.
I don’t have objection to intelligent thinking. I have an objection to the LameStream Media focusing on “optimism” when their BOOB is in the White House but ignoring reasons for the same when a Republican is there.
The odor of bias is what peeves me. :)
An Obama recovery is a heck of a lot worse than a Bush recession.
:)
Good points.
I do believe we need to point out the problems Hussein is not addressing...the employment situation will probably continue to be a major sore spot. Companies are increasing productivity (good) and therefore not increasing hiring.
Hussein is doing NOTHING to encourage new businesses to be created...unless of course you’re going to build “green” widgets. Which no one wants to buy.
Conservatives would do good, too, to POINT OUT REPEATEDLY that the recovering economy is IN SPITE of Hussein, not because of him.
This gave me a very unexpected laugh.
Me too every time I hear a report on the boob tube about the market.
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