Very true Blindside. Every night I watch the news at 10 and its all doom and gloom. I think confidence of consumers is very much affected by the media and they certainly aren't helping! OK, the economy is not in the best state but the continual talking it down surely can't be helping.
In other negative news I read today Bill Gates predicts the downturn to last for years rather than months. Who knows though, all we hear is prediction after prediction and they seem to change by the day. The only thing we know for sure is economy's can not continue to grow indefinitely, with record growth each year and record profits from companies. It had to stop somehow it's just going from 100 - 0 very quickly!
All we can do is our best, keep things in perspective and trust that things will stabilise, eventually!