That said, the small businesses I speak with are still too nervous about Obama ("Obama hates small businessmen/women...they are non-union") for them to hire or otherwise expand. Additionally, many investors seem to be waiting for the manure to hit the fan at the muni and state level before looking beyond Obama.
Look at what people are buying in the malls: lots of clothing and other necessities. This is the new “normal”. There is no reason, including the recent election, for anyone to think we’ll ever be back where we were 10 years ago. Regardless of whatever the media prefers to broadcast, as long as there are so many homes around me with “For Sale” signs over a year old, and anyone I know who has replaced a lost job is earning 50-60% of what they were 3 years ago, and others I know still can’t find work even when their unemployment has been cut off, I know we have still not hit bottom yet.
Many people have begun saving, and paying down debt, so their personal balance sheets look healthier. Also, mortgages remain near historic lows, and there is pent up demand for new housing, if not existing houses.
Reports of consumer spending for Christmas suggest a recovery to 2007 levels if not better. Nevertheless, it could all change on a dime if the market corrects, and the dollar sinks more, raising energy and other costs. We are by no means out of the woods.
Spending their unemployment money, putting it on a credit card. Activity is not recovery. This is all false economy. Wait for yet another seasonal sales lie, to put pay to the overall glossing over of reality. The mall is not main street, or small town street or really anything real at all unless it’s made in China.