I read a disquieting article today posted in The Hill called Welcome to the Fake Recession, which assumes that life will "go back to normal" in a few months. But how fake is it to your consumers, communities, local businesses, and the households wondering why the historically strong cash flow dried up overnight?
Sure, for years there has been speculation of a recession coming in 2020 and yet in December of last year Forbes published an article that mocked the idea of 2020 becoming a recession year. By appearance it seemed that the typical causes of a recession had been sufficiently anticipated and the risks mitigated. The reality is, however, that there is nothing fake about this recession. Instead of “fake”, we consider this recession to be manufactured by a) the apparent mitigation of typical, traditional risks and pitfalls without b) anticipation of the far reaching impacts of local, state, and the federal governments urging Americans to stay home would have.
Essentially, the emergency brake got pulled on the economy in favor of public health in response to COVID-19. Community financial institutions have a real opportunity to USE DATA, DIGITAL TOOLS, and DIRECT COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT to be the stabilizing and energy-creating epicenter your community needs RIGHT NOW.
Whether or not it was the right choice to press pause on the economy or not is fodder for a discussion at a time when the stakes aren't so high. What we'd love to chat with about right now is ensuring you’re being positioned to be the bastion of hope in your community to keep your local economy thriving when stimulus checks, unemployment benefits, and mortgage stays run out.
