A friend posted a notice from a small business in Dublin on Facebook. The business (the name or sector is not relevant for this post) closed its doors on 31 January and the explanation for the closure started with “due to the current financial climate”. Interestingly, that business was in the same part of Dublin where a 3-bed apartment on Daft.ie has a rental price tag of EUR 3,800 per month and it was not a million miles away from a number of areas in Dublin, where the pubs are booming like mad.
If we talked about a place far away from our world, we would wonder what is going on, we would be puzzled!! Why are there these type of significant contradictions happening: One business closes due to “the current financial climate” and other businesses are booming and house and apartment prices are higher than they were before. But it is just around the corner from us, in the middle of our life and neighbour hood. So are we booming or busting?
The answer is most likely that we are BOTH in a boom and at the same time still in trouble. There are some companies who are (still) in trouble, some because they were not made or managed to be ever successful and others because the people running them are still in the mindset of “trouble”. But other areas are just ignoring that and it seems to work for them.
The “current financial climate” is still in the head of people while at the same time they are prepared to spend like there is no tomorrow. It also seems that we have a new split in society with one part being still – at least partially – in the bad financial climate, while the other part is riding the crest again. Nearly all formerly bankrupt or at least “NAMA-treated” developers seem to be back in buying mode! :-O
Where does that leave us? It leaves us in a weird and eerie twilight zone of a “boom-bust”, where the emotions about the economic situation might influence us more than the actual facts.
It’s a pity about that small business, because without a doubt dreams and hopes were dashed, replaced by disillusionment and despair.But I would also guess that that small business had made it through harder times a few years ago. Maybe they just reached the point were they couldn’t take it any longer?
