Everybody's selling, but nobody is buying.

For as long as I can remember it was easy to buy and hard to sell. Now it’s the other way around. No one has any money (except the 2% who are rich) or any credit so that the all important word in economics, demand, is at a standstill. On the other hand we now have more selling methods than ever in history. Hundreds of TV channels, thousands of radio stations and millions of internet websites. All of them pitching as hard as the late Bob Feller and suggesting you buy from home in your pyjamas with your credit card. But people don’t have any money in their pockets, let alone their pyjamas. so these messages are falling on deaf ears. Another upsidedowner is from the advertising playbook: the more you tell the more you sell. It used to be true in the golden age of copy and David Ogilvy. Unfortunately we live in an age where most messages are visual, and hence. hard to determine their meaning. If you do click on one of the enticing sites you’ll get a flood of information, or should I say hyperbole. I scroll down page after page of promises only to end up at a bar called “Order Now”…a $437 value only $47 if you place your order in the next 35 nanoseconds. Hope springs eternal, especially in these times, but these offers have the distinct aroma of scams. There used to be real products, real benefits and real companies to deal with but now who knows? As Marcel Proust once said, “To goodness and wisdom we only make promises, we obey pain.” Like foreclosure, unemployment and bankruptcy