This article is so ridiculous is so many ways, it's hard to know where to start.
Please note, readers, that Mr. Gross may have someone's ??? or some company???s ??? best interest in mind, but it is certainly not the best interests of average Americans.
People who save money are 'savers' Mr. Gross, not ???hoarders???. It used to be considered virtuous to save; now apparently the press thinks it isn't.
Being conservative in the face of economic uncertainty is a rational response.
Buying on credit is what got us into this mess. It will not help get us out of this mess.
No one should buy anything unless:
a) They can afford it
b) They need or want it.
Certainly, you should not buy something just because a Newsweek reporter thinks you should. Remember, this person knows absolutely nothing about your personal financial situation and your needs and wants. Only you know those things for sure.
Years ago, beer companies showed ads on TV encouraging people to drink without qualification. Now, in response to the tragically high loss of life due to drunk driving, those same beer companies add the phrase, 'Please drink responsibly.' to their commercials. The new message is: drinking all you want is not always such a good idea because sometimes that can lead to people getting hurt. I think consumer goods companies should add, "Please spend responsibly." to their commercials. In other words, spending because someone else wants you to is not a good idea.
Stop Saving Now!
Email To A Friend
Please fill in the following information and we'll email this link.
Between 1996 and 2007, according to the Kauffman Foundation, about 0.3 percent of the adult population started a new business each month, or about 495,000 per month. There's no reason to think such entrepreneurial activity will decline in this recession, although there are some barriers. In recent years, many new businesses have been financed through retirement savings, second mortgages and credit-card debt. None of those three sources of funding is particularly deep now.
Even so, layoffs can prove a powerful spur to entrepreneurship. Last October, Susan Durrett was laid off from her job at a San Francisco–based architecture firm. "Starting my own business was actually my best alternative," she said. Reasoning that people might be forswearing major remodeling projects for smaller ones, she started her own firm, Susan Durrett Landscape Architecture, and now has four projects in the works. Durrett touts growth areas, such as green roofs, edible gardens and sustainable design.
The new ethos of thrift, which is as much about efficiency and sustainability as it is about penny-pinching, may have significant commercial applications—beyond green roofs. Startups in wind power and smart-grid technology are still finding sources of funding. Small enterprises that install solar panels and conduct energy audits are expanding. They, and other businesses, will benefit from measures in the recently passed stimulus package to weatherize homes, and make government buildings more energy-efficient. Of course, there's more the government can do. To name one example: an affordable national health-care policy, which could allow people to quit their jobs and launch businesses without worrying about the crippling costs of premiums or medical costs, might be a better spur to risk taking than targeted small-business loans.
The markets, and the economy as a whole, are continually buffeted by the twin forces of fear and greed. For the past year, fear has clearly had the upper hand. But over time, as fear subsides, our inborn instincts to improve our lot—Adam Smith would call it self-interest—will make a comeback.
In the meantime, it wouldn't hurt for some of our most successful risk takers to step up. The recently published Forbes list shows there are well over 300 American billionaires. And while their net worths have suffered, they still have the means to provide the risk capital that is now in short supply. That's what the nation's wealthiest family did during the Great Depression. In 1931, in the depths of the Depression, John D. Rockefeller Jr., who had spent his life giving away his father's fortune, embarked upon a massive, private stimulus program: the construction of Rockefeller Center. The project, the largest development in New York between 1931 and 1946, employed some 75,000 people, from stonecutters in granite quarries to artists, architects and welders. "It showed a great deal of confidence," says Daniel Okrent, author of the definitive book on Rockefeller Center, "Great Fortune." Conceived as a sort of philanthropic, private-sector public-works project, Rockefeller Center turned out to be a home run as an investment—and still supports thousands of private-sector jobs. Its shops and plazas may be quiet today. But someday the hordes will return—and let's hope it's sooner than later.
With Daniel Stone in Washington and Nick Summers and Jessica Ramirez in New York
© 2009
Discuss