Not only is our economy changing at record speed, so is our way of thinking.  As the world alters around us, out of necessity, so do our desires and the way we go about achieving them.  As most everyone knows, the last few months have seen profound shifts in every aspect of our society from politics to finances and careers to technological advances.  Because of this, our thought trends have taken off in a new direction.

Here are some of the most recent trends:

What's HOT...

• Discounts
• Trying to live within your means

I just heard last week that confidence in the economy is at the lowest level it has ever been.

I don’t know about you, but I’ve noticed an underlying fear that seems to be growing. We are being bombarded by the media, hearing the reports of lay offs, banks failing and stores going out of business (not to mention the entire auto-maker industry), streets with less consumer traffic, and retailers just aren’t as busy as they should be this time of year.

For decades, we Americans have focused on the basic belief that MORE = HAPPINESS. People everywhere say, “If we could only get more, we’d be so much happier. A bigger house, closets of designer clothes, dining out every night, and giving our kids everything we didn’t have. All these things would make life better, right? We’ll have the American dream!”

It didn’t work. The more we got, the more we wanted. We started buying based on the assumption that in the future, everything goes up. Real estate values grow, our incomes rise, the stock market steadily climbs, and we have an endless ability to get more credit when ever we want it.

It's easy to get caught up in the day to day drama of the current American economy and start pointing the finger. For instance, we could blame the media for inciting so much fear, or we could blame the banks and other financial institutions for making so many bad credit loans.  We could blame the bleeding-heart liberal democrats, or the ultra-conservative republicans, or whatever part of the federal government we are angry with!  Better yet, we could blame President Bush for single handedly causing everything in every market everywhere in the world to collapse.