When I wrote this blog last year, some of my topics included the gloom over the economic downturn. It has been a challenging year for businesses, small and large. And even though this is a blog of hope and positivity, I've always believed in facing the brutal facts of the current situation.
I live in Canada. There is an unspoken resentment among many Canadians that the Americans (especially those who bash their timid neighbors in the North) deserve what is happening to them. Even though Canadian systems provided better controls over borrowing from the start, the U.S. mortgage crisis was just too heavy a burden, it affected money supply around the world. So, there are many Canadians who secretly mutter blame at America for the recession in Canada and the rest of the world.
Americans lost their jobs by the millions in 2009. At 10% unemployment, one in ten families is rethinking how Christmas will be celebrated. And here is a disturbing figure.
About a quarter of those unemployed are about to lose their unemployment benefits by the end of 2009. They have not been able to find jobs in a whole year, no matter how well they followed the hundreds of thousands of tips on finding jobs.
If about 1.5 million working adults are about to drop off the map by the New Year, will they no longer be counted as unemployed? Will unemployment figures be rosier, but not so in reality? It is difficult to fathom so many families just living off their last savings until there is none. That will stall recovery.
I suggest that we look at the current reality and move forward. Blaming is unproductive and backward facing. I firmly believe that a U.S.A. recovery is a world recovery. The key to recovery is jobs creation, and America needs it now. Increase in spending will increase economic activity everywhere, and there is nowhere to go but positive growth.
My wish for today is the other "R" word: Recovery.
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