Philip's Blog

What exactly is a recession?
How did we get into this financial mess in the first place?
How do we know when a recession is over?
Reports about the economy are sending mixed signals, consumers are not.

Reports about the economy are sending mixed signals, consumers are not.

Philip Leitman Consumers are looking for value in the form of pricing, service, extra value, and recognition by businesses that they want to earn the consumer dollar.

The objective of i-am-anti-recession.com is to bring consumers and businesses into a new and thoughtful relationship. We are doing this by encouraging our business participants to come up with creative offers that represent superior value. For consumers there is a triple win opportunity. First, good offers from our business partners. second, an opportunity to win prizes such as televisions, iPods and more each and every month for the duration of this program and third an additional opportunity to win prizes by supporting very important community needs through charitable donations made on our website that provide an additional entry to the sweepstakes.

News reports about the economy are mixed, but the i-am-anti-recession campaign is anything but mixed because it is the type of leadership required to change thinking and results in our country.

What exactly is a recession?

The traditional definition of a recession is when the economy of the nation shrinks (or "recedes") for at least two consecutive quarters (six months). It impacts everything from auto manufacturing and sales to housing, and everything else we buy as consumers, as well as jobs.

During a recession, people spend a lot less money. It's an economic paradox, because while people don't have as much money to spend, one of the ways we come out of a recession is by consumers and businesses spending money.

This doesn't mean we should all go out and spend our life savings. On the contrary, one of the valuable lessons of this recession is that we should have been saving more. Consumers seem to be heralding the call for fiscal responsibility – consumer saving is at its highest in 15 years.

The "i-am-anti-recession" campaign is all about value and fiscal responsibility while combating the current recession. That's why our participating stores are offering great coupons and deals. Like us, they know you need to buy things, and they just want to make it a little easier for you to do that.

At the end of the day, getting through this recession is something we're all going to have to do together.

How did we get into this financial mess in the first place?

Most people believe that the recession began on Wall Street and with financial institutions around the United States. In fact, while there is much truth to this, there was also way too much leveraging (excess borrowing) by companies and individuals.

Debt fueled the rise in housing prices and eventually, like all things affected by gravity, what went up had to come down. The housing "bubble" eventually burst as people and companies had more and more difficulty meeting their financial obligations. This rippled to and from Wall Street and banks, companies and individuals.

This is a somewhat simplified answer – there are so many factors that make this such a complicated matter. Wikipedia has a great page with many links to different articles and sources, if you want to do some additional sleuthing on your own. You should also check out this great article at FactCheck.org, which debunks popular myth about specific people to blame for the current economic crisis, and rightly points out that there is plenty of blame to go around.

Meanwhile, you need to go get groceries, or your dry cleaning, or even a smoothie for lunch, and the "i-am-anti-recession" campaign, along with participating vendors, wants to help you with your purchases. Why not make things a little easier on your wallet? Check out our latest coupons and deals, and please remember that our charitable partners need our support to help others in need!

How do we know when a recession is over?

Excesses in borrowing, spending and building, paired with an assumption that the marketplace would continue to increase equities against which we could borrow, have drop-kicked the economy into its current crisis state. It's going to take a lot more than just waiting it out to scale back the recession and move the economy forward again.

The government stimulus plan is what it is. I've said it before, and I'll say it again (and many economists agree) that consumers will ultimately lead the way out of the recession. It's an economic paradox, because while consumer spending needs to rise in order to push the economy forward again, we can't possibly go back to our old spending habits – that would be irresponsible, and would ultimately lead us right back to where we are now – into a major recession.

Typically, a recession is deemed to have ended when growth starts again in the overall economy.

I wish it were that simple.

During this recession, we have lost millions of jobs and closed many businesses. Many people have also lost their homes and life savings. So, while the economy may start to grow again, we will still need to make up ground to recover the jobs that have vanished and houses that have been foreclosed upon. We need to rebuild the savings we have lost. That part of the recovery will take many years, but we can't get to it until we've begun to turn the recession around.

This is why the "i-am-anti-recession" campaign is here. Our mission is to help consumers and businesses alike with great savings and deals, which you can find with our convenient $avings Finder. If we can alleviate even a little bit of the difficulty, if we can contribute even a little bit of the growth needed to climb out of the current recession, then it's a job well done. If we can help organizations which also support our community, that's even better. Please join us in support of our community through our Donation link.

This recession affects all of us, and ultimately, we will get through it together. That's our commitment to you.