2010: 'Big Wait' for Better Times

Just days before the end of what Time Magazine calls "The Decade From Hell," and it's time to look ahead... no looking back. We all know where we've been and it isn't pretty on any score. Terrorism, the economy; natural disasters, the economy; street crime, the economy, wars; the economy...the economy...the economy.

No one issue has torn the fabric of our families, our communities, our nation and the world apart more than the economic meltdown of the past several years. The ability to weave those tattered fibers into a whole cloth of renewed prosperity is the most pressing concern for all of us as we look forward.

So what does 2010 and the ensuing years of the next decade hold in store for us? 2010 can probably be categorized as "The Big Wait." We'll all be waiting to see if the agenda set in motion by President Obama begins to turn things around in a meaningful way for the average person. Wall Street has recovered and the big banks, for the most part, have paid back their TARP bailout money with the huge profits they are already earning. Good for them. Even retail spending was on the mend in November and consumer confidence showed an up tick, the New York Times tells us today. Hopefully, that spending is not all on credit cards, which can make matters worse for everyone but the banks.

It remains to be seen how the bankers respond to the opportunity taxpayers have given them to now become a significant part of the solution for economic growth. A large increase in smart lending for business development would be an indication that they understand the error of their previous ways. But, hey, no recriminations.

The big unknown for the immediate future is what will happen on Main Street, where the current recession has been felt the deepest by real people. "A recession is when your neighbor loses his job, but a depression is when you lose your job." That's how my father explained the difference to me long ago and he knew whereof he spoke. He dug up tree stumps for the WPA so that my mother could feed me Gerber's baby food in 1938.

So for one out of ten Americans we have been in a depression and it won't end until unemployment in the nation is at least cut in half. That will not happen quickly, according to the experts, who have told us that job creation is the last vestige of economic recovery. So there's no predicting how long the "Big Wait" will last. Meantime, white wine and bicycles will be in vogue in 2010, says an outlook by the Economist, among other prognostications made by the international economic magazine. Let's toast the coming of 2010 with positive anticipation.

And, That's That...