Economy in Recovery? We're Really Not Buying it.

For the past year economists have been saying that the recession is over, but here on the ground, we’re not buying it-literally. Now even the economists are scaling back expectations and predicting the recovery will continue to be sluggish for a while. As one put it: We have an epidemic of thrift.

That struck me as funny. Remember when thrift was a virtue? Just goes to show that you can have too much of a good thing. Despite modest signs of recovery, businesses are reluctant to hire or spend and that impacts consumer confidence.

So while cheap may be the new chic, we may be starving our economy by being so frugal. I say we get out there and spend, people! Hit those back to school sales for office supplies (because we all love office supplies, don’t we?), get yourself a snappy new outfit, go out to eat – or better yet – order lunch for the whole office.

I don’t advocate that we go back to reckless spending and conspicuous consumption, but perhaps we do need to take a deep breath and start investing in our future again, one purse or pizza at a time.