What’s the Real Way Out of the Economic Mess?

June 22, 2009

By Mike Wayman

Opinions about how the economy will ultimately improve abound. There’s a great number of reasons why. After reading something that the Federal Reserve Chairman has said, or after watching 60 minutes at times or even after having a really good discussion with a friend about the economy, it sometimes seems the answer to our nation’s problems, economically speaking, seems rather simple: get credit flowing again, get people working again or consumer confidence just needs to take root and then things will improve.

Well, I think there’s good news and bad news about the economy. The good news is that credit is very cheap right now but the guidelines for acquiring credit have become stricter. Credit being cheap is good while guidelines being stricter, while understandable, may be seen as a negative. In terms of jobs there is growth in certain sectors, like computer and biological sciences, but the overall employment situation has yet to improve. Consumer confidence rose for the first time in a while recently, but overall confidence is rather low. So what does this all mean?

It means that in reality our leaders that direct monetary policy, the statisticians that gauge the public psychologically and our friends that we speak to are all a bit confused and frightened by what’s going on. The reality of our current situation, and the only way out, is for American ingenuity to again create superior products, services, or leading edge technologies that can create a demand or fill a serious need around the globe.

The real way out of the economic mess is no secret…it never has been. It’s good old fashioned hard work. I think the American people are still up to the job.