Are we heading into a recession? Are small businesses better or less able to handle a recession? What are your thoughts?

I think we are heading into a realestate recession but not a broader market recession. I think we will see some pull back in personal and business spending but not much.

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I think the next 6 months will tell right now we are in balance right now but I think if we have more subprime or realestate issues it could tip the balance into recession

I think we are clearly in a recession we just have not gotten the information yet - because it is usually backward looking that we are in a recession

Given the recent news I would say that we are not. There are signs of improvement in the credit and the stock markets

Well, I would say we are heading into a recession, but it can't get much worse than tons of foreclosures and $4/gallon gas.

Truly, I do think things will get better. It's time for everyone to make a point to recession-proof their business as much as possible.


Aaron

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I think since this was first posted it has become a lot clearer we are heading into a recession

Whatever industry pulls us into a recession, it's going to hurt everyone eventually. Well, maybe not the toilet paper producers. But as fears of an all-out recession increase, the economic world is going to slow to a meditation. And that includes our general life activities, as well as our inspirations. This may be exactly what we need, a little time to rest and think; but they say growth is everything. I just don't think it's gong to happen.

I have a feeling that as people begin to hold on to their money more, they'll travel less, and stay on ideas instead of pushing towards their goals. That means consumer slow-down (in a big way) and a lack of economic growth and turnaround potency. Most of this is already happening, but a little less bad news could really help the situation.

Half of all economic decline is outlook, and the media is not really helping. All the numbers are up, but when we hear all this gunk about major industries and financial instutions feinting ballout, it leaves a lot of people with their hands in their pockets. They're not reaching for cash, though. And they're even further away from buying or building anything.

Though horrible, it'd almost be nice if a country other than ourselves invaded someone. FDR's practical epiphany (though understood throughout our economic history) was that when recession looms, the Feds must spend, spend, spend. And as everyone knows, the tried and true means of spending to offset an economic turndown is war. But notice the interest rate cuts? It's really just the reverse to encourage the same thing, general consumer spending. Instead of dumping money into the Nation via the increased production usually brought about by war, they're making money cheaper to get, hoping the same turnaround. It's creative, but I think it's going to be a disaster.

So where does this leave us? Nowhere but unsure...

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Federal spending made interesting.

Desparately needed to stave off a massive recession here in the U.S., Federal spending comes not in the form of another war, nor in the guise of yet another interest rate slash. It comes to us as an all-out hand out.

When in Rome... I suppose.

I'm looking forward. I've got a double-dip coming. Not only am I a tax payer, I'm married. And I have a small business. Being a tax payer here in the U.S means (at least for this year anyway) receiving a nice little check from the government with the hope that I'll spend it on a new TV or maybe some clothes. If I'm married, that check (however much) is going to double, plus one to two hundred dollars. And if I own a small business on top of that, we're talking tax breaks for new equipment.

Pretty sweet, eh? Anyone else smell a high-def 52 incher?

I do. The whole place stinks to high heaven like one...

Anyway, I think the payout is a cool way to go, but this isn't the late 1940's, where 70-sum percent of the WASP population had scuttled away nest eggs from the War. Though the number of people with actual money in hand is going to be significantly larger (if the bill passes the Floor), I wonder how a few hundred bucks each is going to dig us out of this whole we've been widening and poised to fall into since 2001.

Economies go up and down. We've been leading the world for decade. But what do I know. All I'm saying is that sometimes the hardest thing for an 'old hat' to do is sit quietly upon the shelf and 'recede' into antiquity...

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