Nattering Nabobs of Negativism

Spiro Agnew famously accused his detractors of being "nattering nabobs of negativism". Other alliterations of his were "pusillanimous pussyfooters" and "hopeless, hysterical hypochondriacs of history".
Wow! These are perfect descriptions of what we have been seeing and hearing from the talking heads in the new reality of the 24/7 news cycle. How do we business owners manage to get out of bed each morning after being bombarded with catastrophic oil leaks, rabid jihadists determined to change our way of life, bailouts of businesses deemed too big to fail, politicians who write our tax laws found to be evading taxes, foreclosures, dried up venture capital and european governments on the verge of collapse. Not to mention our countries astronomical deficits.
Yet, get out of bed we do. Each and every morning. We plunge headlong into our days with the expectation that something wonderful will happen. Perhaps its because we are Americans and Americans are by nature an optomistic lot with entrepeneurs being particularly so.
2009 was challenging for so many businesses; small, medium or large businesses were impacted. No one was spared. As much of a struggle as this recession has been for us all, I noticed that few, if any, of our competitors or suppliers permanently closed their doors. All of us adjusted. Maybe we learned our lesson from the drop in the semiconductor industry a few years prior. We learned to prioritize, to keep our debt down, to react earlier rather than later to the signs we see around us and to cross-market our products.
I was flipping through channels the other day and caught the tail end of an interview of a person who followed the business trends of the Silicon Valley. He argued that downturns in the past were followed by sharp upturns because the government eagerly supplied capital for innovation as well as infrastructure. This funding has dried up according to him (wish I caught his name). He indicated that high tech was growing at a fast pace in Israel, India and of course China due to their governments willingness to invest in their growth. What can we do about this? Anything?
We've all heard that small business is the backbone of our economy yet manufacturing is dwindling in the US while our government is growing. How can this possibly be sustaining?
Despite the negativity I've enumerated above, we are seeing real positive signs. Quoting has skyrocketed, budgets are being approved and alliances are being made. Are the improvements in the economy and our industry due to the government stimulus or is it a cyclical condition? I'm not sure, but everyday I get up in the morning and expect wonderful things to happen.