The Economy - it’s YOU.

Our Mainstream Media

I opened the morning newspaper to yet another dose of economic cold water, and a host of companies announcing more layoffs (am I the only one that finds it incongruous that companies look for economic improvement by individually doing the one thing that collectively ensures it doesn’t happen?). The Dow was up 500+ points yesterday, but so what? It’ll drop 600 today, or maybe go up by 900 — the point swings have become absurd. Unemployment figures release showed another 550,000 looking for work, and we can anticipate the unemployment percentage to probably top out between 8% and (God-forbid!) 10% before this is all over. For context, the revised “full-employment” unemployment percentage is about 3.5% and the Great Depression had about 25% unemployment.

But really, in a sense it almost doesn’t matter (except to those who’ve lost their jobs, of course). Companies lay people off, not because they are acting in concert with other companies to collectively destroy any possibility of a swift economic recovery, but rather because they operate in a relative vacuum. The decisions are made for economic reasons based on previous decisions — and ONLY those previous decisions — made by that organization and which led up to the point of requiring a reduction.

Or, as we’re still seeing — the need to hire a significant number of new employees right away.

Notwithstanding their self-perceived notions of honor and dignity and nobility based on their righteous fight to ensure we, the masses, are well informed, the real purpose of any news outlet is to turn a profit.  In other words, they are a business just like any other business.  And as we all know, good news doesn’t sell. Bad news does. Train wrecks, natural disasters, wars, famine, corruption, graft,…economic meltdown. These are the things that sell newspapers, get viewers, and attract eyeballs to web sites. Which means higher advertising revenue. And in an economy where fully 90% of the problem is fear and uncertainty, it’s arguable that our media and its ability to instantaneously convey every conceivable snippet of financial or societal ill is a significant obstacle to getting this economy back on track. But if one looks very carefully, one can still find glimmers of an economy that is fully functional, and doing everything it is supposed to: rewarding companies that operate responsibly and have a product or service that people want to buy, and beating the living snot out of companies that have tried to redefine the rules of capitalism.

Detroit automakers are drowning, yet Dixie-based manufacturers like Toyota, Nissan and BMW are flourishing (relatively speaking).  One asking for a handout, the other getting about the business of selling things people want to buy.

YOU get to hear about how bad Ford, GM, and Chrysler are doing.  You DON’T get to hear how VW is opening a new plant, or how a German based steel company will be creating 1200 new jobs in Alabama starting next year. But what you’re left with is the impression the world is ending.

And it’s not.

Ok, you might say. But what does that have to do with MY economy? And you’d be right, because that’s really what this is all about. The economy really is about YOU. And me. Companies lay people off because they are living an economic reality that is unique to them, just as individual make economic decisions based on their own circumstances. Which is why I thought it fantastic, yesterday, when I saw two brand new cars on the road with 30-day tags.  One was a $200K Aston Martin, and another a $250K Bentley.

Releasing your inner-James Bond

And believe me when I say that where I live, this is so far out of the ordinary, both cars nearly caused accidents from the heads they were turning.  Pickup trucks and John Deere tractors are more the rule out here in the Blue Ridge Mountains and Shenandoah Valley.

But here were two instances of successful people who still had enough confidence in the economy and the future to buy automobiles that truly no one needs or could ever justify. For THEIR economy, everything was fine.

Likewise, in spite of the media, I speak to recruiters, recruiting firms, and HR and Recruiting technology providers on a daily basis, and with very few exceptions, they are still quite busy. A new media company needing 500 new employees, another organization looking for 200 new account executives. Recruiters still filling jobs, and (to use one example) the over 1700 jobs listed just this past week on one career site for positions that pay well in excess of $100K, to say nothing of how many openings there are on Monster.com and other career sites.

Those companies are living a different economic reality. They’ve made decisions which have brought them to a point where further growth won’t be possible unless new people are hired. And these “thousand points” of economic “light” are the foundation of our collective economic recovery.

Is today scary?  Sure. But stop reading the news, don’t open your statements, and focus on YOUR economy. Your company’s economy. If you still believe, as I do, that America is not going to go out of business, and that a few months from now or a few years from now, we’ll all be looking back on this as a bad learning experience (starting with — HEY! don’t borrow more than you can pay back!), then everything will be fine.  Invest in yourself and your organization so that day comes sooner.

But don’t let the talking heads and wordsmiths who get paid to sell you bad news ruin your day. Or all your tomorrows for that matter. YOU are the economy, and what YOU do determines how quickly we can get back to building a better future for all of us.

Just my two cents…

Michael