by Chuck Correll

Created on: March 22, 2009

The current economic situation has us in quite a mess. Between 65-70% of our Gross Domestic Product is based on consumer spending. When consumers become afraid of their future, they spend less, which erodes GDP. This is part of the reason we're at the current stage in our crisis: the psychology of American consumers has been thwarted.

In another article I argue that the current crisis is of such a magnitude that it will have a permanent impact on consumer spending as a percentage of GDP. I stand by that position. I also posit that future economic growth needs to come from the manufacture of real products and services for which American and international consumers have a real need for, not just want. Technology for cleaning up the environment, technology for reducing our dependence on foreign oil, and thereby allowing a reduction in greenhouse gases, and other forward thinking technologies that originate and stay here will get us out and keep us out of economic crisis.

However, that will take time. In the meantime, we consumers must do our part to stop the economic erosion. There is a new age theory that states, based on what we've learned from quantum physics, that the entire universe, including, but not limited to humans, is interconnected. In quantum physics they call this Entanglement.

Extrapolated to our experience, what it means is that we're
all part of a larger, often misunderstood system and that changes in one part of the system has an impact on the whole.
This sort of follows the metaphor you've probably heard that if a butterfly coughs in one part of the world, it affects the weather in China (except, in the original example, the butterfly does something besides coughing.
J)

This theory goes on to imply that what a mass of humans ultimately believes will be our collective reality. Therefore, if we believe we are in an economic crisis, we will be in an economic crisis. If you accept this as true, then we need to stop believing we're in an economic crisis and start acting accordingly. As more and more people begin to believe we're not in a crisis, so it will be.

After 9/11, one of the first things President Bush said was "go shopping" to help offset the impact that this crisis could have had on the economy. He was chastised for making such a statement and it did sound a bit ridiculous at the time considering what had just happened. However, he wasn't
really far off the mark. He knew that if our collective minds decided the attacks were going to create a significant

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