Finally!

At long last, it's official,. We're in a recession. I guess we've been in a recession since last December. How is this determined? A bunch of economists got together and declared it so. So we've been in a recession for about a year. It's expected to last another year. This should be received as great news. Everyone knows that recessions are followed by long periods of success, so the fact the the recession began- a year ago-should be celebrated.

Apparently, consumers already knew this and celebrated by spending more on Black Friday than they did last year, before the recession began. This is remarkable. All signs have pointed to people spending less, eating less, huddling around fire stoked by torn up, useless want-ads. Instead, we got tons of people spending, a dead Wal Mart clerk, and an abundance of flat screens, Play Stations and Blue-Ray DVD players flying off the shelves and out the doors. Big ticket stuff.

Now I'm not saying that times aren't difficult. The mortgage meltdown is real. Unemployment is up. Businesses are cutting costs by laying off workers. Here in Las Vegas, both the slowdown in tourism and construction businesses has the town on edge. The fact that people went out and shopped should be heartwarming and reassuring....except for the family of a certain dead Wal Mart clerk.

Recession be damned and full speed ahead.