Is the recession/depression real or just media hype?

[jthomson71]

I've actually been involved in and overheard a number of conversations in the last few weeks about just how bad this recession/depression really is. Other then perhaps my home value being a little flat and perhaps down a little (nothing dramatic) I'm not sure that things are really as bad as everyone wants us to believe. I see many posts on this site of people that are taking the current situation and making the most of it, and most of the people I know are doing the same. I know there are sectors that are hit hard right now but doesn't that happen once in a while. Aren't we starting to create a mindset of scarity and lack? Why can't the media (and I know the answer to this question that is why I don't watch or read to much news) focus on abundance and the people that are flourishing right now. My belief is there are more people then we realize that are moving right along with their lives. Good for you!! Can we all just step up and try to do a little bit more a little bit better and not wallow in the misery the media is selling?

[Elenny]

The recession is real. There are many people losing their jobs, homes, cars, etc....but I agree that the media is making it much worse that it has to be.

By avoiding negative media reports and focusing on abundance and prosperity you are doing the right thing.

[Eric Roosevelt]

Originally Posted by jthomson71

Why can't the media (and I know the answer to this question that is why I don't watch or read to much news) focus on abundance and the people that are flourishing right now.

The media's job is to report key events in the world, whether they're good or bad. It's better to know exactly what's going on.

On the other hand, I tend to agree with what you're saying. People generally have a bit of a hard time putting this crisis into context. There have been many economic slumps in the past, including some pretty bad ones the last few decades. There's also a tendency to forget all the economic growth which preceded the economic downturn. But that's not to say that the situation isn't bad. It is.

[Talkofthatown919]

The media has blown this so called recession out of the water. It's only as bad as you see it to be.

[Ontowhere]

It is what you make it to be. My friend sold his business and started a new one and is doing well. The one thing he tells me is, that he doesn't want to hear people talk about recession.
The media does put way to much focus on the negative and it can get really subconcious, if you don't pay attention to, what you are fed.
I was at the hairdresser the other day, flipping through a magazine.
It was filled about recession articles. How to beat the recession, buy recession boots, an article how to make a recession soup.
If I didn't flipp through it for my amusment only, I would sure end up depressed just reading that one magazine.

[SimonaRich]

Why would anyone buy into the reality of someone else? Okay, some people manifested bad economic condition, but this is not your reality, it is theirs.

By observing such situation you are making your own reality the same as others. It is okay to do that when you observe something good, but why would anyone do that when it is something they don't want?

[Indiana]

Originally Posted by Talkofthatown919

The media has blown this so called recession out of the water. It's only as bad as you see it to be.

While I agree that the media's doom-and-gloom perspective is engendering fear rather than hope, I'm not sure the 'it's only as bad as you see it to be' perspective flies that well with the 2.2 million job losses in the last four months.

If you haven't lost your job or if your business is largely unaffected, wonderful, keep up the positivity. But don't dismiss the fact that the recession is having very real effects on real people. I personally know four people who have been made redundant in the last three months, and know of another 11 peripherally. I'm pretty sure those people have a different perspective on how bad the recession is.

[muzamilsa]

recession is going on but the things will change soon this will create some new oppurtunities dont get scared and act like a tortoise move ahead with confidence and happiness and you will see things coming up..

[cylon]

It is pretty bad. It is a significant recession, nothing more or less. Not the end of the world, but pretty darn serious.

The media of course, took something that was pretty bad and went straight to armageddon with it. Shameful. If it bleeds, it leads, that's always the case with the media.

Unfortunately, everyone pays attention to the media, so in a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy, making it seem worse than it really was, actually made it worse. More people were laid off due to fears implanted by the media that the world was ending.

Do not watch the news unless you are willing to trade peace of mind for terror, or are strong enough to not be influenced by it.

The news/tabloid media is designed to make you feel bad. If the news was good, you wouldn't watch. If the day ever comes that people get fed up hearing about how bad the world is, things may actually change. We are connected after all.

[Brutha]

The media of course, took something that was pretty bad and went straight to armageddon with it. Shameful. If it bleeds, it leads, that's always the case with the media.

The media isn't speaking about doomsday. CNBC is full of naive optimists.

The media has blown this so called recession out of the water. It's only as bad as you see it to be.

The idea that problems just disappear if you don't look is what produced the crisis in the first place. If nobody had noticed that those subprime loans were bad the bubble could just have kept on.
You can't simply pile up debt without paying it back in the future. Not buying as much on credit might be a good shift.

[cylon]

Of course there are optimists. But it seems to me the majority are doomsday pessimists.

[chineerat]

In the beginng the media denied a recession will occur, then the media said a small recession, now it is a depression. You have to ask yourself, is the news is really any news.

[MisterEThoughts]

The media definitely hypes things up a bit. However, we are definitely in recession, but there is a lot to be had, if one looks around himself.

[funchy]

I had what I thought was a secure job. I was laid off in January. I submit resumes every week, and I haven't so much got a phone call.

I volunteer for a nonprofit. Donations are down -- half of last year or more. Volunteering is lower too because everyone is so stressed or working extra cause a spouse lost a job.

Houses aren't selling. My friends are losing their jobs. I don't recall ever living through a recession this bad. Right now the Help Wanted pages, which used to be many pages, are down to FOUR full-time job ads. Even the retail stores and pizza delivery jobs aren't hiring.

[rawxstasy]

I know in my little world here, things are bad, but I seem to be doing pretty good. ( must be my positive thinking)
At my job as a nurse's assistant at a hospital, hours have been cut and the hospital is doing all kinds of cost cutting measures. My maximum number of patients used to be 12 - it is now 15. When the number of patients is low I get sent home. Nurses used to have a max of 6 patients - now it is seven. This is a recipe for disaster - some patient is going to suffer or die. There are very few nursing jobs in Montana. My school is hosting a career fair and my classmates who are running it said they had a heck of a time to get 11 vendors to show up. Most hospitals told them recruiting was the first thing their hospital cut.

I will be moving out of state when I get done with school in December. I've noticed some places seem to have more jobs than others. I also recently got a part time cna agency job which pays $5.00 an hour more than the hospital job. I was surprised they hired me, though they did tell me they didn't have many hours to give me. But it will be an additional job to the hospital one and should pay the bills till I graduate.

[goodstyles]

Originally Posted by Talkofthatown919

The media has blown this so called recession out of the water. It's only as bad as you see it to be.

The question isn't if the situation is good or bad, but if there really is or is not a recession or depression.

Thinking positive is great, and it can allow you to work successfully through/around problematic situations that arise and impact your life.

If an osterich doesn't quite like what it sees, it sticks his head in the ground, and no longer sees the bad situation. "It's better down here. Life is good. Am I a positive thinker or what?!", he might say.

I say "no", as would most people. Turning inwards and running a positive-thinking script, and, facing the problem and working around it with confidence and a positive attitude, are two entirely different things.

Many people are positive thinking in general, most are not unfortunately. Positive thinking doesn't label a terrible situation as good, it really defines how you frame it and how you will approach the new condition. How you react is the positive thinking, not how you think it should be labeled.

Originally Posted by SimonaRich

Why would anyone buy into the reality of someone else? Okay, some people manifested bad economic condition, but this is not your reality, it is theirs.

By observing such situation you are making your own reality the same as others. It is okay to do that when you observe something good, but why would anyone do that when it is something they don't want?

Are these rhetorical questions? <- Is that a rhetorical question? Yes.

Why would you say, it is okay to manifest the reality equal to that of someone else when it's "good", but not when it's "bad"? But your first question was implying that it's crazy for anyone to do it at all. This is assuming your use of "buy in" equates to "manifest", which given your post's context is a fair assumption to make.

The world is facing a global recession. There are people that manifested a significantly financially wealthy reality. They lived the lifestyle, but it was snatched away from them because, well, it's a giant house of cards upon which they were living their extravagant lifestyles. It doesn't mean they were manifesting a "bad" economic reality directly, quite the opposite in fact. Now they're living a vastly contrasted reality and they may view this as destruction of their wealth in a financial context. And it is. That is what it is. Is it a good or bad reality... that's a subjective evaluation on the part of the person who has experienced this.

The question here is NOT are we in a good or bad economy, but are we in recession. Yes, we are in recession. People grow financially and people shrink. How you view it is your reality and what label you place on it is whatever you like. But we are in an economic recession whether you like it or not, and whatever the media say.

And no, you cannot blame the media one bit... this is a house of cards we all built upon and we are all STILL building. People who live in a highly sustainable manner environmentally, are living very much unchanged.

Word.

[alexplatups]

This reminds me of a question I read in one of the first threads when I first
discovered this forum, and it went something like this

Does it take the same amount of energy to earn $1 as it does to earn $1,000,000?

and the question *Is the recession/depression real or just media hype?

is about the same quality

...of course we are in a recession, and the global financial market is in very,
very bad shape, around 50% of all money in the world has evaporated or
has been frozen in real estate/land that no one wants, and can't afford

this is the problem with all this *subjective reality belief* approach, it might
work while you are living in some fairy tale, and you have the cash to support
your lifestyle, but as soon as objective reality comes knocking on the door...

...that subjective reality falls apart really quick, when your house is getting
confiscated or you get kicked out of your job, then all the LoA in the world
is not going to save you, and all you will be thinking, is damn why did I ever
listen to any of that bs, but then it is too late, you will have to take the fall

...but hopefully this will teach a lesson, that nothing is more important than
current reality, as a tool for keeping you on track, when you are moving toward
your dreams...nothing

...you can visualize your dreams, and goals, this is very effective, but do not
ever fall for any kind of subjective view of reality, as a measure of your success,
because you will never be able to adjust your steps, or take action at the
right time

because with subjective reality, you will always make things seem either better
than they are, or worse than they are

...and this is exactly why objective reality works so effectively, you know
where you are standing, and you always know the next step that you will
take

...this is really what happens anyway, except when you are lost in
subjective reality, you are almost always forced to take action, because
of the circumstances that arise from you ignoring objective reality

and when you are tracking current objective reality on a daily basis, you can
take steps toward your goals based on choices that you make yourself, and
not because someone or something forces you to take them

later

Alex Platups

[goodstyles]

Alex, I've had a couple glasses of wine, but I think I understand where you're coming from. I agree with your sentiment a lot.

I read around these forums a bit, but I don't post often. It's only in the last week or so I've decided to because I find, from my own perspective, that there's a lot of patting one another on the back. What do I mean by that? I'm sure people will take offense at this, but then, isn't that what this is all about?

A lot of people talk the talk. And it's easy. If the bank has come knocking on the door as for the keys because you haven't kept up the payments, you can turn and say, oooh, but I was living a reality based on LoA and this wasn't exactly part of it - LoA sucks! But then there are so many arguments that will tell you how you weren't doing it right. Obviously some part of you was resisting, or maybe you just weren't really ready for it because if this life is what you really wanted the universe wouldn't deny you, right?. You were manifesting someone elses reality. I don't even know all the permutation, but read these forums and you will find them.

Anyways, I still subscribe to the view that you cannot ignore what is going on around you. It is what it is and no amount of LoA and wordplay will change the reality that people are facing today. Again, as I said, it's how you embrace this change and new world order. There is no good and bad except as how you define it, after you've accepted it. Recessions aren't bad. In fact, they're very healthy. Notice I didn't say 'good'. Recessions are corrections in the economy due to over-indulgence and glutiny. While the world has gotten richer, the planet has gotten poorer. We are raping our world. Not just the corporations. It's you, me, and your neighbour. You turn on your air-conditioner, you drive your car to the shops, you use the internet, you watch TV, you turn your lights on, you charge your ipod. All of it... ALL of it. This energy comes from somewhere and the waste of it has to go somewhere too.

I'm ranting now.

Word.

[escapee]

This is a global economic (DEBT) meltdown, Why in the world people still think this is a recession? Japan & Taiwan have just reported a 30-40%+ plunge in export. Oil crashed from USD 140 to as low as USD 33, Dubai has literally become a ghost town with 3000+ abandoned luxurious cars at the parking lot of airport. 20+ millions out of jobs in China. Yes this is very serious.


The popular mass media (ie CNBC) have been lagging behind the non mainstream "prophets" of doom and gloom (Ie Gerald Celente, Nassim Taleb, Marc faber and etc ) for years.

YouTube - Jon Stewart's recent attack of CNBC's Jim Cramer almost has Cramer in tears (Version 2)

CNBC JIM CRAMER :" DO NOT TAKE YOUR MONEY OUT OF BEAR STEARN"

The man behind the 8 Bil fraud scheme ..
YouTube - Allen STANFORD - FRAUD - who is he... 1


Simple economic stuff. When the "economic growth" is based upon the incessant growth of debt through various exotic and mysterious financial instruments, then at some point in the future when it reaches (DEBT) saturation point or got exposed as scam or ponzi scheme, it has to collapse violently. No amount of positive thinking and intention manifestation can override the simple law of economics or math ( for example, you cannot build long term prosperity with debt ).

Troubled minibond investor attempts suicide : The Singapore Enquirer: An independent online news daily

A 45-year-old widow - believed to have lost HK$5 million of her late husband’s insurance money in Lehman minibonds - was discovered on Thursday night trying to kill herself, local media reported.

The woman had burnt charcoal and cut her wrists inside a car in Lok Ngar Court at Kwun Tong.

The woman was discovered by a security guard at 11.40pm on Thursday night. He had been patrolling the car park in Lok Ngar Court. She was rushed to hospital and was now in a stable condition.

Inside her car, police found a suicide note, along with letters highly critical of the Bank of China (Hong Kong). These were left on the windscreen of her car.

In the suicide note, the woman said she was “giving up” after investing more than HK$5 million in mini-bonds. This money had originally been invested in fixed deposit investments.

The widow said she had bought the Lehman minibonds via a Hong Kong bank (SEHK: 0005, announcements, news) branch.She said she has lost this large sum and feared for the welfare of herself and her son –as they had no one to help them.

In a separate case, a retired 72-year-old Lehman minibond investor, who had lobbied for justice for two months, is now brain dead. He had become seriously ill on November 18, his family told local media.

His daughter-in-law said he had been kept alive in hospital for three weeks. He had been waiting to hear from the bank.

LIVE WITHIN YOUR FINANCIAL MEANS

[Brutha]

This is a global economic (DEBT) meltdown, Why in the world people still think this is a recession? Japan & Taiwan have just reported a 30-40%+ plunge in export.

Additionally when the media speaks about it being an recession the people think that the media is pessimistic.
The media isn't. Calling it a recession is the optimistic interpretation of reality.

[timothydrake]

People... this is a depression. This is past recession. You can't even find a blowjob these days its so bad.

[dice]

Um I haven't bit hit by it at all. My aunt is transfering jobs. And its actually great for me because housing is cheap and i'm moving!

Never letting myself think about money is paying off. (ha, ha, ha)

[dice]

Originally Posted by timothydrake

People... this is a depression. This is past recession. You can't even find a blowjob these days its so bad.

Second Life

[ken nubo]

It's bad -- if you got a job. My friends are getting laid off, like it's crazy. As for me? Just chilling and making monies online in my underwear.
__________________
How to get rid of your debt in 30 days or less with these simple tips

[Inthon]

CNBC has a humongous issue with credibility.