Somewhere during the past few weeks, this current recession has been unofficially christened “The Great Recession.” I first heard the term a couple of weeks ago on CNN, and it has been creeping into a lot of conversations both in the media and in normal conversations. The losers in this recession are well documented, but I’d like to give a little shout out to a couple of benefactors in these hard times. The primary winner of the (non-existent) Big Winner of the Year award goes to all the recipients of advertising both for and against health care reform. The latest figures I can find date back three months to August and by that time $54 million dollars had been spent in various media outlets. www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/04 It only seems logical that at least that much has been spent since then, as the real fighting was taking place. That figure probably goes underreported because, lets face it, the people receiving the money are the ones who would be reporting about it. The runner up to the Great Recession Sidestep Award goes to retailers of America who will make an estimated $8 billion in gift cards that are purchased but never redeemed. It just goes to show that no matter how tough things get, somebody is always making money.
By Myron Gushlak
