Just back from a business trip to America. There, one is treated to Wall St to Wall St coverage of stock market crash news. Most news bulletins beam live coverage of the opening of trading every morning at 09.30. The market indexes are broadcast in a continuous box on the TV screens, and average Americans speculate, often with almost hourly trades, as though they were betting on the horses at Newmarket.
I was attending a convention for senior figures from the US hardwood industry. If you think we have a recession here in the UK then there needs to be a new word invented for what most of them are going through. Considering that the output of hardwoods has halved in three years and there is an equity crash one would expect an atmosphere of utter gloom.
Even though they are all watching a daily massacre of their personal pension plans they all remained remarkably buoyant. I can only put that down to the old maxim that you should never gamble more than you can afford to lose. If my American friends are sticking to that then considering some of the sums people admitted to me that were down they must be remarkably rich to start with.
With similar economic gloom almost bound to follow here in the UK what should one do to remain happy? Count our blessings is my recommendation. One needs to look at what one has, not at what one has lost. On that score I am a lucky man and I hope I never fail to remember that fact when I am tempted to have a moan about the state of my company/ finances/pension plan or expenses.
There are so many people in the world that have little or nothing to begin with. Remarkably, many individuals I have met in the developing world have given me inspiration by maintaining their health and happiness regardless of continuous economic woes.
In the early 90's I started a small furniture business in rural Northern Israel. After a couple of years of hard graft things seemed to be on the up; the order book was healthy and I was employing several guys. Then Saddam Hussein decided to launch his Scud attacks and unwittingly I found myself in the midst of the first Gulf war. With the first rocket strikes, overnight, business completely dried up. Orders were cancelled, customers disappeared off to the military and only creditors phoned (they never go away). I had no income whatsoever. Something not dissimilar is happening in the housing industry right now. Mortgage lending in August was down a staggering 70%! Builders, large and small alike, are petrified both physically and mentally. New houses stand empty and buyers have all but disappeared. Back in Israel in the early 90's the incredible thing was that as quickly as things stopped they started again when the crisis passed. Within months the business was back up and running and we survived, admittedly a little worse for debt but happy to get back to normal. Nobody but nobody knows what lies in store after this credit crunch crisis passes. Commentators failed to see it coming, and anyone who tells you it’s over is just guessing. It's already caused a lot of stress and anxiety, and it continues. The reason for my little story is simply to illustrate that sudden stop/start cycles may be very unpleasant but they are not necessarily terminal. Buyers do re-emerge, houses will be built again and we can all trust in the adaptability of the economy to recover. That is small comfort to those already out of work - I fear there are many - but the situation remains eminently recoverable.