Sooooooooo bored with the credit crunch

If the experts are to believed, we are only just stepping across the threshold of this thing that is called a global recession.

Please tell me that ain't so becuase I am sick, sick, sick of it already. Every magazine, every TV news report, every web news service is full of it. Which makes me wonder - is it possible that this undoubtedly serious siutation could be made worse by the media hysteria that surrounds it? Is the recession a self-fulfilling (and possibly self-glorifying) prophesy?

The whole world has gone into a state of paralysis. Nobody wants to do anything, or spend anything. I am not about to counsel recklessness, but there are huge swathes of the world population - commercial and private - that are largely unaffected by the credit crunch. If you are not trying to sell your house, where is the problem? The cost of lending is falling for businesses and private individuals alike. The cost of putting fuel in your car has fallen by about 25% in the last few weeks, heating your house is getting cheaper, as is food. If I wanted to buy a car, well, people are almost paying you to take them off their hands. It is unbelievable how cheap cars are now.

Heck, the UK government is now bitching over the fact that things are too cheap, and they have to take measures to counteract negative inflation - things cost less this year than they did last year.

Paradoxically, the climate of financial meltdown has in fact helped some businesses that were already in trouble, because governments are now implementing policies that mean that the rottweillers in their various agencies, who are notorious for harrassing and indeed closing down businesses that might be a bit behind with their tax payments, for example, now have to be more sympathetic. They have to be more patient. More cuddly.


And yet ....

Although every man Jack may not be shouting it in the streets (apart from the media hacks, who no-doubt love this ongoing content bandwagon), the paralysis continues to grip. People I know personally, and companies that I do business with, have just pulled up the drawbridge and pulled the woolly hats over their ears. It is one thing for private indiviuals to do this, but it staggers me that businesses think it is a good idea. After all, if they are worried that their business may suffer in a recession, is it really a good idea to disappear off the radar? How can you do business if people don't know that you exist? Is your business likely to make more sales as a result of you burying your head in a sand bucket?

I really don't think so.

Yes, I am moved to write this piece because I am seeing how circumstances are affecting my own business. Anyone out there that sees the value of continuing to operate like a normal wireless business and wants to promote messages, talk to me now. Let's say that deals are available.

But looking at the bigger picture, the impact of recession-itus is such that companies that don't need to go bust are going bust. The practice of putting a hold on projects, cutting back on R&D, ceasing to tell the world who you are, where you are and what you do, is corrosive in the extreme. As a result of the business communities financial constipation, people are losing their jobs and then their homes. Companies that have good products with real market potential - WiQuest, anybody? - are disappearing.

Get real, people. A bunch of greedy bankers may have brought the stock markets and the banking system to their knees, but life can and must go on. And it will be do so much more smoothly, and we can expect to restore some degree of normality much more quickly, if we just stop acting like rabbits in the headlamps.

Religious reference here, so brace yourselves non-Christians:
Christmas is coming. People need to be happy and feel secure. Do your bit.