idea -lets declare the recession over and make it a self-fulfilling prophecy

mikedublin

OK. Heres a idea - wouldn't today (St.Patricks day) be a great day to declare the recession in Ireland now over, and if enough people believe it and keep saying it, we could make it a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Start spreading the word - tell your family and friends - start spending again, we are at heart a cheerful and optimistic people, and rather than digging ourselves into a hole we can help ourselves climb our way out.
Next time you are in a group or in the pub and someone starts talking about the recession, try tell them that the worst is behind us, and things are actually begining to pick up again. What I'm suggesting is if enough people say it, and word spreads it will actually come true.
Employers won't want to let staff go if they think the up-swing is just around the corner, and even the government won't need to raise taxes if they find they are getting enough starting to come in from increased spending and new jobs producing income tax.
We need to create this "feel-good" factor and this is the best time of the year to do it with Sring and Summer on the way. If just enough people do it soon the news will be reporting surprize increases in retail sales, a drop in unemployment, and a re-emerging of confidence and growth.
Come on Ireland - we can use today as the day we re-launch our country.

Zynks

Funny is that it is possible to get a significant improvement with an approach like this. It does actually feel good to adopt a positive thinking. Why not I guess.

silverharp

it makes no sense , there has been a real loss of wealth , you might as well tell a hurricane victom to cheer up.

P. Breathnach

silverharp wrote: »

it makes no sense , there has been a real loss of wealth , you might as well tell a hurricane victom to cheer up.

There is something in mikedublin's suggestion: a large part of the problem is a loss of confidence. There is also something in silverharp's response: the loss of confidence is profound.

nesf

Sentiment is a large part of any recession but it is not the only part. You're treated a symptom not the cause.

silverharp

P. Breathnach wrote: »

There is something in mikedublin's suggestion: a large part of the problem is a loss of confidence. There is also something in silverharp's response: the loss of confidence is profound.

There is an element of loss of confidence but that doesnt explain the fact that speculative real estate and the like were built for which there is no demand. Confidence or not doesnt make the debt or the excess real estate disapear. If you accept that there was massive mal investment and mispricing of assets, then this is simply the system trying to correct the excess.

yoshytoshy

When you weigh up the different countries and their problems ,they all boil down to the governments.

People seem to be looking for answers from their governments ,but they already know what the answer is ,we are all to blame for the mess.

Agent J

Why not click your heels and say there is no place like home while you are at it?

Sticking our heads in the sand isnt going to make the situation go away. Its part of what got us into this mess in the 1st place.

We need to suck it up, admit we f**ked up, take our medicine and get on with it.

A couple of french revolution style gullotines wouldnt go astray either(One can dream..)

dresden8

mikedublin wrote: »

OK. Heres a idea - wouldn't today (St.Patricks day) be a great day to declare the recession in Ireland now over, and if enough people believe it and keep saying it, we could make it a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Start spreading the word - tell your family and friends - start spending again, we are at heart a cheerful and optimistic people, and rather than digging ourselves into a hole we can help ourselves climb our way out.
Next time you are in a group or in the pub and someone starts talking about the recession, try tell them that the worst is behind us, and things are actually begining to pick up again. What I'm suggesting is if enough people say it, and word spreads it will actually come true.
Employers won't want to let staff go if they think the up-swing is just around the corner, and even the government won't need to raise taxes if they find they are getting enough starting to come in from increased spending and new jobs producing income tax.
We need to create this "feel-good" factor and this is the best time of the year to do it with Sring and Summer on the way. If just enough people do it soon the news will be reporting surprize increases in retail sales, a drop in unemployment, and a re-emerging of confidence and growth.
Come on Ireland - we can use today as the day we re-launch our country.

Grand, I have 400 AIB shares you can buy off me for about 18 euros each. That'd go a bit of the way to alleviate my recession blues I can tell you.

book smarts

Something similar was done in the Tom Clancy novel "Debt of Honor". Extreme factions in the Japanese government sabotage the NYSE computer software one weekend as a prelude to war, and on Monday morning stock markets start to collapse. The powers that be worldwide get together and decide to collectively wipe the slate clean- money is only an imaginary concept anyway.

Agent J

book smarts wrote: »

Something similar was done in the Tom Clancy novel "Debt of Honor". Extreme factions in the Japanese government sabotage the NYSE computer software one weekend as a prelude to war, and on Monday morning stock markets start to collapse. The powers that be worldwide get together and decide to collectively wipe the slate clean- money is only an imaginary concept anyway.

Bollocks. I read the same book. They reset the trading clocks back a week after a systematic and proven direct economic attack which jumbled up all the main trading data in the world by subverse elements of the japanese government.

Completely different situation which doesnt apply here.

book smarts

Yeah but the principal is similar- a general agreement to start again if the World economy collapsed.

Ostrom

P. Breathnach wrote: »

There is something in mikedublin's suggestion: a large part of the problem is a loss of confidence. There is also something in silverharp's response: the loss of confidence is profound.

Interesting to see RTE news hit on the 'stimulate spending' imperative behind the newest US announcement

Interesting when you strip it down to the commodity

PJCotter

P. Breathnach wrote: »

There is something in mikedublin's suggestion: a large part of the problem is a loss of confidence. There is also something in silverharp's response: the loss of confidence is profound.

Agreed. Although there are huge problems, there are still plenty of people out there, in exactly the same situation as last year but because of all the pessimistic talk they have begun to hoard their earnings for fear of what might happen. Don't get me wrong, its good to save just in case, but extremes are never healthy. We need to free up what little cash we have in the country and start to rebuild confidence.

Agent J

book smarts wrote: »

Yeah but the principal is similar- a general agreement to start again if the World economy collapsed.

We arent there yet.

Besides if the lessons of what brought us to this point are not learned and enforced then history will just repeat itself.