Since this is my first blog post for 2011, I thought i was begin this year with a bang. So whilst so many other bloggers, and columnists are trying to sum up last year, I want to instead focus your attention where it should rest, on trying to sum in the next. To tell you the truth i found it difficult to find columns on the 'new year' not only because im sure there are alot of new people out enjoying it, but also because everyone else whom was writting columns or blogs seemed to be trying to just sum up the year just gone in as small a space as possible [is 2011 really just an interlude until the world ends? cause it seems like 2010 was]. But in any case, i did find an editiorial from the New York Times called A New Year. I wish the editiorial was authored, so i could give the writter some credit. She spends alot of the article talking about the year to come, suggesting a squabble between forces of the prospects for a new year, where we take into the new year our hopes and continued perspective that the world can be a better place, over taking into tommorow the notion that our burdens are here to stay, and what the editiorial refers to as 'sliding scale between utopia and dystopia' which i really liked, because it brings a notion of both prospect and dread into the new year, the big question is which however will dominate, not which we hold dear [which is where i think the editiorial failed, and id like to pick up].
So firstly, what do i mean with the 'dirty word' that i talk about with relation to 2011, [no I don't mean the 'f' word] i mean the 'r' word. Thats right, recession, the word i know all your blog readers are dieing to hear about [HEADLINE: 'and today, the economy has herpes'] but really people, can i just stop you for a moment and lets have a tiny chat about 'recession, recession' in the middle of my column. I have been digging through some old economist articles and found one called The Recession Index - Words that Can Harm You all the way back in [what might as well be the Jarassic Period of] 2002. The article talks about the r-word index, where you count the number of newspaper articles that use the word 'recession' and with comparison of everyones favourite word with previous years, you get an image of how perceptions of the economy sit. I decided to do my own experiment along these times and test out what is the world was thinking about right about now when it comes to the word recession? [HEADLINE: 'and today, the economy has climaxed and now is beginning to shrink bringing with it sticky unemployment'.] If you type in 'the recession is beginning' into the search engine you get 18,700,00 results, and if you type in 'the recession is over' you get 32,800,000 results. With this in mind, and considering some of the groups that have begin to collect numbers on Facebook another 'recession meter' like "using the recession as an excuse for just about anything, no matter how irralavant" which has just over 14,000 people, you get a further picture, but in the end who really wants to start a group on facebook called 'I want to have babys with the recession' so maybe that is a bad example, I wonder however where this blog will sit with relation to the recession meter, hot or cold? Prehaps starting my first post about the new year talking about the word recession isn't a good way to leave my readers with what inspired the title, but never fear, I'm getting there.
It would seem that this optimism is held towards 2011 because we have spent enough time procrastinating about the current year [and lets face it, enough time focusing on the world recession]. And we can talk about how 'this indicates that' all day long, but in the end i have to use the words of a certain gentleman in the white house, but i think now is simply for so many a time for a change. Money is on the flow, and now most of the O.E.C.D [its mean like all these developed nations, Wikipedia it] economies are no long in recession, which is something to be optimistic about, right? This type of thinking is where the phoenix comes into it, cause after all, we have to move forward, we are all realizing we cannot stay in the same place for too long, as much as because things are getting better. Its not about a cycle of 'good economy' today, and 'bad economy' the next day, it is simple about move onto the next think. But what we really are very quick to forget is that the overused dirty word is something we do to each other as much as we do to ourselves, the economy words in cycle and a reluctance to hire, or a rise in price, is something we do which hurts ourselves, because it means that someone who would have spent won't, and the more money flows, the better the world is. 2011 will be the year that everyone starts spending more, and start looking at challenges dealing with government debt, and not just forget about it and make excuses [you watch, when the US congress goes to 'raise the debt limit' soon, it won't be able to pass, and not because the US cannot handle anymore debt, but that the US shouldn't, it can start to deal with the issues at hand, rather then governance being all about 'bringing us back from the greatest depression..."] Thinking about global warming, thinking about innovation and entrepreneurship, and thinking about starting a new business, this is going to be the year of the Phoenix, where the modern nations continue their rise. We need to think of what to make of 2011, and what our new thing will be, and that is where I think we begin, and not end, for the prediction i give for 2011 is that we are going to hear the word recession a lot less, cause it isn't 2010 any more, so now we move on to something else, whatever that maybe.
