theoriginalcynicist

Although it’s only early October, many of us have begun planning our shopping for this coming holiday season. However, since the economy is pretty much in the toilet, at least for the immediate future, it looks like I and millions of other consumers will be scaling back on splurging on holiday gifts this year.

Now granted, many of us vow every year not to go too crazy with the spending when the holidays approach, but there’s always that one purchase that busts our budget, whether the item is for someone else or, more than likely, for ourselves. (Can you say big screen TV or iPhone?)

In any case, with the economy in such bad shape, we’re likely to see a blizzard of ads from every kind of retailer tempting us with deep discounts on all sorts of items, but I wonder if it will work this year. The unemployment rate is high, people are losing big in the stock market, and companies probably will be paying out very light end-of-year bonuses, if they even choose to do so. It doesn’t make for a prosperous holiday shopping season for retailers, and we’ll soon be reading and seeing reports by economists telling us that the economy is in even worse shape because people aren’t spending big.

It’s a vicious cycle…

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