Fear

There's a reason that many people ignore the news. It's because so much of it is designed to scare the average American. The reason for this, quite frankly is because fear sells. When you're afraid you want to prepare for the worst. The best way to prepare is to try to see as far into the future as possible, and what most people think is that the best way to do that is to keep tuned to the news channels and to read the newspapers.

I believe that fear is a self-fulfilling prophesy.

In 1986 my father died and I spent six weeks unemployed, at the end of which I did not have a dime to my name. It was the most terrifying year of my life. I had been working a few months and had managed to save a few dollars when there was a news report saying that the country, in fact the world, was on the verge of the next great depression. The stock market had just sustained the largest loss since the great depression. I was scared. I took my tiny savings and bought silver dollars. I figured that silver would be worth a lot more than paper in an nuclear economic meltdown. For the next year, every time I had an extra ten dollars, I went to Carson Pirie Scott and bought another silver dollar.

Of course the worst did not happen, and in a few short years America was back to a booming economy.

One of the first things that is hit in an economic downturn is the job market. Last week I was juggling the interview schedules for nine different opportunities. Yesterday I had two more calls. While I'll concede people are concerned about the economy, I don't believe we're facing an Armageddon. I remember that as Clinton left office and the nation wasn't certain who would be heading the next administration there was the same economic uncertainty. I predict that once the nation knows who will be the Republican and Democratic nominees, things will relax. They will relax because we will then know who will be telling us exactly what we need to fear next.