Reader poll: When will the economic winter begin to thaw?

January 2, 2009 | Dean Takahashi | Comments |

Here’s a new year poll for our readers. When do you think the economic winter will begin to thaw? We want your opinions about how quickly indicators will start to improve compared to year-ago figures. How optimistic are you? Let us know in the comments.

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About the Author, Dean Takahashi

Dean is lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat. He covers video games, security, chips and a variety of other subjects. Dean previously worked at the San Jose Mercury News, the Wall Street Journal, the Red Herring, the Los Angeles Times, the Orange County Register and the Dallas Times Herald. He is the author of two books, Opening the Xbox and the Xbox 360 Uncloaked. Follow him on Twitter at @deantak, and follow VentureBeat on Twitter at @venturebeat.

  • I'd say maybe mid-year or so, maybe a little later. The core issues that caused these troubles are beginning to be addressed (and most of us know what those are), but not fully yet. Until they are, the economic winter will keep blasting.
  • Linda
    I think we won't see a thaw until at least December.
  • The thaw began when the excessive optimism turned into excessive pessimism, about six weeks ago.
  • Foo
    Talk about babbling nonsense. Folks look only to the dotcom bubble burst. We didn't see venture investment pick up until mid 2003. But we had different conditions then. Things are actually worse today. Housing market collapse will drag down consumer spending which will depress a variety of sectors including manufacturing and ad spending. This already having negative impacts in the content world. Additionally the market caps of various acquiring companies have been slashed and thus the exit prices will also take a big haircut. American indebtedness is at all time highs while saving is at all time lows.

    This winter could turn into an ice age.
  • The comparable previous recession (housing mortgages, bank collapses, cheap imports from US into Europe) was in 1873 and lasted 20 years in Europe.
    Thus it will take longer than one year, but probably not 20 years.
  • While I don't think we will enter an Ice Age we will be lucky if the turn around begins before the end of the year.....

    it hasn't got so bad that people are willing to do what it will take to fix things ...... which includes fundamental re-thinking about market capitalism and the way people are recognized and rewarded for individual success.

    Michael Hammer before his death, wrote in May 2007 about the "Seven Deadly Sins of Performance Measures" summarized here...http://www.customerthink.com/blog/seven_costly_deadly_sins_performance_measures

    Prescient foretelling of what was to come........