Are we rolling with the economic punches or just running scared?

While Federal Labor, Liberals and Nationals are all still arguing about what degree of gloominess is appropriate for discussing the Australian economy and the global financial crisis, it appears that average Australians may have made up their minds.

Although the Melbourne Institute announced that "The median expected inflation rate, reported in the Melbourne Institute Survey of Consumer Inflationary Expectations, fell to 2.3 per cent in February from 2.7 per cent in January", it also released news that the "The Westpac–Melbourne Institute Index of Consumer Sentiment fell by 4.6% in February from 89.9 in January to 85.8 in February".

Seems no matter how much money the Rudd Government throws at the situation or how the Reserve Bank acts on interest rates, we're all determined to expect the worst for this year if not the next.

I suspect that many would feel a lot more cheerful if those with personal or corporate agendas didn't use a megaphone to label the current global financial crisis as the Great Recession, which is a self-fulfilling prophesy if ever I heard one.