If according to former President Ronald Reagan a "Recession is when your neighbor loses his job. Depression is when you lose yours," what then do I call the economic condition when during the last two years, my three brothers-in-law, all formerly out of work, have found great jobs, and my work has increased?
Good times? A boomlet? The Roaring 12's?
In our collective good fortune, to ward off what many seem to see as the "evil" Obama eye of unemployment, do you think I should spit over my shoulder three times?
My lips are sealed.
It's reassuring to know everyone in the mishpacha is back to work. I also realize that one family's labor statistics, regardless of how rosy, do not a rose garden make.
The economic data out of Washington continues to paint a portrait of Americans out of work, though measured by Gallup, the unemployment rate dipped in mid July to 7.9. But for a more personal measure of the economy, how about factoring in Reagan's criteria as well.
Beyond measuring new orders of consumer goods and average weekly jobless rates, economists have looked to other underlying indicators to check their data like, sales of distilled spirits and RV'S, number of movie tickets sold, and how may trips to the dry cleaners we make.
In my economic picture, my bros-in-law are these other indicators: one found a job with a non-profit, another, in sales, and the third, in real estate.
What does this mean?
As a result of the b's-in-law finding employment, their families can take trips to Israel, put their kids through college, and buy Chanukah gifts for the grandkids.
So here's my political analysis: based on my micro-mini-sub-economic-Jewish brother-in-law sample, the Obama years have been good for education, retail and Israel.
"Hah," you say. (Or I'm guessing perhaps something more aggressive).
"How can you draw such an absurd conclusion from such puny data?" I suppose you are asking.
Well...well...Ronnie, save me!
Don't we all draw are economic outlooks from our immediate surroundings. Isn't the most influential economic data set, the one we live in?
When Gallup surveys Americans about their economic confidence
(According to their most recent survey, it dropped in mid July) what do you think they are measuring?
It's not just what's going on economically in your household that colors your response, but the ones with which you are in close contact as well.
So, color my economic confidence "rosy," as well as the other households in my sample, and spreading out like that often cited ripple in a pond, the people they communicate with: relatives, neighbors, and the people they say Kiddush with at their synagogues.
Also, don't forget to add in the ripple effect, the people those back-to-workers hire: the doctors, lawyers and dentists whose bills get paid, the hotels they book, the merchants they shop with, and the colleges who receive their tuition checks.
It's quite a wave.
Our family is just a tiny pebble in that economic pond, and I get it: many others have not been as fortunate, but this is how going back to work, works.
I can understand why a lot of us are feeling grumpy about the economy and the president. Maybe it's time to do your own Reagan-inspired survey. Check in with the relations, talk to your neighbors. Ask, "Are things really that gloomy?"
I did, and in this family, things are not as bad as they seem.
