Let’s go shopping

"It's ending", "Not just yet", "There are signs", "But only time will tell", "A brand new scheme", "Unfortunately the last one was not quite", "Home sales up", "Retail still not", "Wall street is slowly", "Unemployment rate on the other hand", “More teachers had to”, “State again cut”, .....

I get it. It's the worst recession since the great depression but it's been too long (please spare me the numbers and figures) already and I'm getting sick of hearing about the tell tale signs of recovery only to hear that they were pre-mature.

The benefits of recession that initially lured people like more sales in your favorite stores, deep discounts on cars, amazing bargains on home prices and cheap air fare soon got old because it also started affecting other bigger aspects of our existence like threats to our jobs, inability to afford healthcare and gloomy stories from our friends and family.

Yet another radio story brought out an interesting point, that it was a global recession which affected every country simultaneously but the recovery is a different story. Just because they all crashed together, it doesn't mean they'll all recover together. Some nations will lag behind others in this aspects by months or years. France and Germany were the first to report a teeny bit of growth last year, followed by Hong Kong and Japan today. The likes of China, Indonesia and Brazil are reportedly quite stable as compared to their richer counterparts like US.

If you are sick of hearing about it, here's a proven solution. Go shopping. Homes, cars, paint, toys, shoes, cameras, whatever you can. Yes frugality is the new black but let’s put that on the back burner for a bit and do something collectively. If you go shopping, retail sector will gradually show some recovery just like manufacturing has after ages (thanks to cash for clunkers), consumer confidence will rise and US will start buying again from other countries eventually lifting global economy.

Sometimes the most complex situations have the easiest solutions. Like shopping! Go.