A little optimism, maestro.

From all sides, media, commentators, pols, come doom and gloom about the economy and America's future. This writer has been no exception. It doesn't require any perspicacity to see the signs and omens and make such predictions. But could they
be the cause as well as the register of some of that gloom?
Gloomy projections about the future change people's behavior. They become cautious,
reduce expenditures and increase savings. Their perspective becomes short term---
hunker down. Such sentiments are immediately translated into reduced demand, turning the gloom about the economy into a self fulfilling prophecy.
The remedy for recession is to stimulate demand. Private enterprises are constrained by stockholder interests from doing so. The government is left as the only source of such stimulus, but the very cautions that reduced demand act to inhibit such stimulus because of aversion to increasing deficit spending. As a result the recession is prolonged and more damaging.
Capitalism of which this nation is a disciple, is characterized by cyclical expansions and contractions. We can allow these to play themselves out in their
usual time span, or apply counter measures which have been shown by experience, to shorten that span and contain the damage to the security of the majority of our citizens. The task for our politicians is to lead public opinion to accept those measures in spite of their fears or ideology. When will they grow up to that task?