Recession?

Last week's election (Canada) and next month's election (United States) have been keeping many of us pre-occupied and distracted from the dreadful economic woes that are facing our respective countries. Somewhere between the Liberals rocking and the Democrats rolling, we have been officially informed about the dreaded "r-word."

I can see the headlines now: "Recession - Coming to a Town near You."

To stave off the said "r-word" ("recession," in case you haven't been watching CBC), the United States government has come up with a very, very big band-aid - a $700 billion dollar one, in fact. That would buy a lot of Big Macs. My response, at a light-hearted level only, is: Please, Uncle George, may I have a couple of Happy Meals?

Seriously, these are desperate financial times for our neighbours to the south, and it's only a matter of time before it hits us here in Canada. Just what shape it takes, who knows for sure? No matter what our politicians assure us (and I do believe they have a sound plan), we need to be prepared for some economic adjustments.

Having been told that a recession is coming, we are more likely to hold back on buying. If we hold back on buying, then the manufacturers and the retailers of our nation suffer a slowdown. If the makers and sellers of Canada slow down, then there is limited growth in the economy. We can't build or buy, so then the economy...oh, well, you get it.

I do know that if you are told something long enough -- whether it is true or not is irrelevent -- you will believe it. The landscape of world history is scattered with various lies, untruths that have led to wars, genocides, and human misery. Thus, if we are told enough times that there is a recession, or that one is coming, we will believe it. We will alter our spending habits, we will conserve our major purchases, we will do with less.

We will, in fact, produce the recession ourselves, if we are not careful.

I am a writer and a teacher and an actor; I am not an economist, by any stretch. But I struggle with those who apparently know what is going on. Are we being given all the facts about the economic woes? Are things really that bad? Is there a hidden agenda? I don't know, but I am not sure that I should rein in my financial plans because of hearsay.

I wonder if money mismanagement, both on the part of the borrowers and the lenders (why do words like "greed," "pride," "deceit" come to mind?), is at the root of this alleged recession. Who says there is one, or that one is coming? We hear the "experts" tell us that, so we immediately slow down and adjust our money matters. In other words, we fulfill their prophecy.

But must we kowtow to the naysayers? We stop because of what we don't know, not because of what we do know. My take on this is that we keep on shopping, buying, selling, and trading. I heard that the best way out of a recession is to spend one's way. You have to have money to spend money, of course. The irony is not lost on me here: More money is being thrown at the banks, so they can borrow to pay back what they ...borrowed..

Part of being a careful money manager is that we pay off our credit cards on time, we arrange mortgages that we can afford, and we do everything we can to shop responsibly. The one thing we don't do is borrow our way out of debt. That's like eating more to lose weight, talking louder to be quiet.

One of the oddest characters in the fables of my childhood was a weird chicken called Chicken Little. You will recall that something bonked him on the head. Without thoroughly investigating the facts, he made some serious assumptions, then went around and around, clucking here and clucking there, convincing others less in the know that the sky was falling. There was no doubt about it; after all, Chicken Little was there when it happened and he repeated it many times.

I think we need to watch out for the Chicken Littles around us, be it in the economic or political world. I am not sure if the (financial) sky is falling. I need to do due diligence myself and check out all the facts before I conclude that the sky is indeed falling.

But what do I know, I'm just a writer.