This is a double edge sword. We are always told to save. Years ago when Americans were outspending what they made, they were told to save. Put money away you never know when you will need it. We were lectured that we had long forgotten what our relatives learned during the Great Depression.
Fast forward to today, where people are saving, and we are being told to spend. Consumers are not buying for fear of not having a job. Perhaps they don't have a job. Lowes home improvement stores will not be open the number of stores they projected. Not only are people not buying houses at the rate they anticipated, but people are not making improvements on their present properties. Target's second biggest season after Christmas is back to school, and it is dull this year. I guess the kids are going to be using last year's back pack. These trends point an arrow to the fact that the economy is not recovering like we had all hoped.
Here is how I see it. You find a tangled up hose in your garage and you keep pulling it and unknotting it. You think you have the hose ready to use and you pull some more and find more knotted hose. Not until it is all the way out and laying on the lawn, do you see the complete hose and what you have. Not until many months after the recovery, will we know we are out of it. Signs are only signs. We will know when it is over when it really is over.
The way to get out of this mess is to not live in fear. We do need to do sensible spending. You can only take toilet paper from the office for so long and then you need to break down and buy some. The growing season soon will be over and your garden will not supply you with vegetables and you will need to buy food. You can only stay home for so long and then you need to get out and see the light of day. It really is better out there than you might think.
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