By many reports, pre-Christmas business was “big” this year. It always is, but sometimes it is bigger than in other years.
And then, there are the after-Christmas sales, when many people not only rush to “exchange” presents but to buy marked-down items they had postponed buying. Many are lured in as merchants try to clear out their inventories before tax-filing season hits.
Our economy has not been exactly “booming” in the final few months of 2010. While many are hoping for a “Happy New Year,” there are not a lot of exuberant signs that economic fortunes are going to be picking up immediately.
Fortunately for Chattanoogans, business has been pretty good, and we have prospects of several big, medium and small new businesses that will be hiring over the next few months. Our economy is fairly good, but we are not bragging about boom times. There obviously are lots of people and businesses finding it necessary to make “adjustments” of many kinds.
Unemployment is still uncomfortably high. Many businesses are feeling uncertainty in their manufacturing, marketing, borrowing and earning. Taxes are still too high nationally, and in some states, counties and cities. For the economy to be really good, we have to hire people and make things that people want and can afford to buy. High taxes make that harder to achieve.
Many of us will enter 2011 with a lot of economic questions still to be answered.