The Economy is Baaaack

Well, at least some of is – and this is a good thing.

And now that the press is talking about how bad unemployment is… that is about to get better as well. We all KNOW that the press is always late to the party.

So what does that mean in high-end audio?

That means the bargain basement deals on Audiogon are drying up.

That means that dealers and manufacturers are selling things again.

That means that CES attendance might be up by 150 to 200% over last year. [don’t ask me how I know. OK, I was looking at the AVN conference (Adult Entertainment Expo) next door to CES to see how hard it is to get in as press to THAT show and they said registration is WAY up by about this amount. No, I think I would be too embarrassed to take 100 close-up shots of the porn star celebrities at that show. Or… am… I? :-)]

Sure, we are all still a little scared and some losers are preaching doom and gloom [ever notice, these kinds of people NEVER preach BEFORE the disaster, it is always in hindsight and to kind of add their own special sauce to an already bad situation.]

So, with more or less full recovery around the corner [well… yes, even for audio] what should we be doing?

Many say we should be repositioning ourselves now – why things are slow and their is time, and while the prices are not quite as stiff as they might be soon. I do not know if this is wise advice or not.

I think prices were too low for the ‘out with the old’ which had to happen before ‘in with the new’. So as some life comes back into the marketplace – expect to see one hell of a madhouse as people sell all their equipment and buy what they think will be better – after all, there has been almost 2 years of pent-up-demand building and building…

So the dealers and manufacturers who will make out are the ones who can handle lots of traffic, lots of orders, because if the hesitate – someone else will get the sale.

And for audiophiles, you have to be quick on the uptake because some things are kind of rare and will not appear on the market very often – and this will be an opportunity to get just about anything you ever thought about buying.

And, by the way, this is true for the Art market and Housing market as well.

No, it won’t ‘over stimulate’ the economy – the doomsayers always like to poop on the party. I do not think a lot of people will be making money as there will be much more swapping for things of about equal value as opposed to everybody emptying their bank accounts to upgrade their lifestyles. But still, with 2 years pent up demand, there will be plenty of people buying new things as well.

I could be wrong – but think about it.