How much is media hype v. reality?

What are you doing to recession proof your life/finances?

What career fields might be affected? Organizations?

How long do you expect the 'recession' to last?

I know that a lot of people think that the economy is "wierd." What I sense is a lack of confidence that there will be enough money tomorrow.

I think we've been here before and gotten out of it before and, in the words of FDR, "We have nothing to fear, but fear itself." And if we give into that fear, then things will indeed, go south.

We were talking about this at lunch today. All this recession talk, yet you go to a restaurant and you have to wait, you go on vacation and everything is crowded, you stand in line at Disneyworld for just about everything. And Foxwood's or Mohegan Sun, mobbed on weekends and busy during the week. Some weekends you couldn't even get a room, if you could afford one. The malls were crowded at Christmas and lots of people shopped online so I didn't even see them. People are spending money. Most are walking around with cell phones, Blackberry's or some PDA device, digital cameras, laptops, etc. I know a lot of people are losing jobs, but there's a lot of spending going on. Where's it going? I don't understand it. The price of gasoline is sky high, yet I have a hard time parking my car because the gas guzzling suv's are taking up two parking spaces no matter where I go and the traffic isn't any less everyday. Myabe some of it is media hype. I've never been able to figure this out. It's happened before.

Excellent points, Louisa...indeed!

Here we are, just a bit over a year later. Hoping next year is much brighter.