What's your Perspective?

Last night I was in a restaurant in Denver, and the server, whom I've know for years, told me that on the previous night an "Economist" patron had said the economy was "doomed" for at least the next eight years. This had made my server very upset. I asked: "how old was this person and where did they come from?" The first answer was that the person was late thirties, maybe forty. The second answer was that the patron was from Southern Florida. Everyone sees the world though his or her own perspective. For someone aged forty, this latest downturn is likely the first that they have had to deal with personally. They have no real personal comparison for measuring this downturn against some other downturn. The second is that the person came from Southern Florida, where housing prices are still dropping, job recovery is abysmal and no end of bad times seems to be in sight. It's no wonder this patron was seeing the dark side of the economy. I asked my server if things were better now than in November of 2008, and were they better than a year ago? The answer to both questions was that things were in fact better. The next question I asked was "do you think things will be better a year from now or worse?" After some thought, the answer was "things will be better!" Perhaps too often we are brought down by the negative thoughts of others without addressing our own perspective on what is happening. A year ago, there was virtually no job growth. Now we are creating about 200,000 jobs a month. A year ago, home sales were almost nonexistent and housing prices were falling all over the country. Now in many places home sales are happening and prices are stabilizing. A year ago, the consumer was barely spending and now spending has picked up. Much of the cash stimulus that the Federal Reserve has pumped into the economy will likely not have its full impact till the end of the third quarter through fourth quarter of this year. I think we as Americans want instant gratification and would like to see the economy back the way it was in early 2007. We have a way to go to beat down unemployment and to see the housing market back to "normal", but we seem to be moving in the right direction, though slowly. At least that is my perspective. Ed Mallon