Time to start believing in an improved economy

It's time to believe again. It's been a long, painful haul, but all indications across the country show that the recession is over. Plenty of lingering effects continue, unfortunately, but we hope consumer confidence soon will turn that around as well.

Our nation's top economic experts are saying we are no longer in recession. They also say that employment will take a while to rebound, and real estate, well, that's another story. But even there we're seeing improvement.

This recession's economic woes were tied to bad loans and uncontrolled investments. It had very real roots and wasn't just a consumer confidence problem or media-generated recession. So it has taken some time to work through it. It appears that we have emerged.

Manufacturing numbers are starting to climb and consumers are trickling back to stores. But a lot of folks burned in this bad economy are still leery of spending their money. That's understandable.

Economic experts say more people are saving money, which is a good thing. But economists don't like that to happen. They want people out spending as fast as they make it. Maybe that makes a strong market, but we believe common sense, paying off credit and saving is just as important for long term economic health as spending money.

It probably would be accurate to say that retailers would love people to break out those checkbooks and start buying. That's because so many of them have been hanging on by their fingernails for too long. Same goes for restaurants and many service businesses.

When people start feeling more secure that they won't lose their job there's no doubt that money is going to start flowing. We hope that the latest news of our economic downturn finally ending will convince people to once again get out there and stimulate the economy.