Regardless of all the economic happy talk, not everyone is so sure that it is not based on groping in the dark for something positive to say about the recession. It could be that they are using blinders that will hoodwink Americans.
What actually happens when people are still losing their jobs and inventories are being reduced? People are unemployed, wages are getting lower, and consumers and businesses are in no rush to spend money. Meanwhile, small successful busness are cutting back in anticipation of the tax burden placed on them as promised by Obama. It ends up reducing the demands for goods and services so that prices have to be reduced.
The reality is that when some corporations report better than expected results it is probably from aggressive cost cutting that is offsetting lower sales figures. But to see the smiley faces reporting the good news it appears to be efforts to manipulate investors.
One gimmick in the reporting of "better expected results" is the old political trick of setting expectations so low that any uptick will make it look like success. The fact is that there is a lot of game-playing going on.
Consumers are holding onto their money, saving because they don't trust what is being reported to them. The more they save, the less they spend, which ends up with more job losses and capital spending by corporations.
It comes down to the fact that the only places hiring workers today is the Federal Government, mostly temporary jobs that are being created by the stimulus spending spree. At the same time, the interest on the money being paid out on the national debt is piling up so fast that it can hardly be counted in mini-seconds now.
Blind man's bluff is a game meant for children. Whether it will work for adult Americans is yet to be seen.
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