By all accounts the coming year will be very challenging.  According to Treasury, the outlook for our economy and the employment look bleak.

But the real risk is that we talk ourselves into a state of paralysis, or worse still, allow ourselves to be talked into one.

While there is no ignoring the impact of contracting economies, history proves our resilience to international shocks: 9/11, the Asian financial crisis of 2002-03, the SARS outbreak in 2002. Each had an impact on our economy.

Against this backdrop, perhaps the worst that can happen is that we believe everything we are told, because one lesson history has taught is that new opportunities arise from new challenges.

An acquaintance in the USA tells me that even now, the financial situation there is changing the status quo.  People, she says, are talking to each other about matters that were hitherto entirely private. People are seeking advice on financial matters previously not talked about.  Surely even this is a change for the better, as people reach out to each other.

I read today that graduates are returning to university as an alternative to job woes.  This is a constructive solution, and surely it can result in new insights from their research. 

If necessity is the mother of invention this year will certainly be a positive and inventive one. 

The one hairy monster we have to learn to curb this year is the prattling of doom merchants.  They are not to be believed, as for all their words, none could see very far ahead, which was proven when we plunged into the current recession without a word of warning from them.

There should be one rule to commentators and spokespeople this year.  If you don’t have anything positive to contribute, don’t! 

Tags: Economy

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 21st, 2009 at 11:32 am and is filed under PR Matters. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.