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There Is No Crisis. There Is No Crisis. There Is -

Posted by
MadScientist (Düsseldorf, Germany) on 21 December 2011 in Cityscape & Urban.

Not much has changed since 2008, it seems. Consumers are jolly over the bountiful tables, carrying big bags out of the stores, and even the retail sector is happy this year. Dutchmen, Belgians, Britons: they all are back. There are even predictions of a new upswing. At least among retailers. There is not a single sign of crisis or recession. Business is working like clockwork. Read my lips and then repeat: There Is No Crisis. Buy. Obey. There Is...

Ronnie 2¢ from Atlantic Shores, United Kingdom

Yes, it can easily seem like there is no tomorrow . . but it arrives for us all. Trouble is, most folk will spend tomorrow trying to come to terms with what happened in all their yesterdays . . The art, of course, is living for the moment.

21 Dec 2011 6:17am

@Ronnie 2¢: Seems so, yes. I'm trying to catch the day as it comes. Everything else would be useless. I couldn't even say if our damned currency will survive the next six months. At least we have a lot of still unread books at home.

Z from Shanghai, China

I feel the same when i am in the shopping mall over here...it looks people have more passion to buy anything that seems to me not really necessary...

21 Dec 2011 11:40am

@Z: You mean flatscreen TVs, tablet computers, smartphones etc. are no essentials!? ;-)

Christine Walsh from Astoria, NY, United States

Wow! Looks like they are giving stuff out for free with the amount of people there!

21 Dec 2011 4:42pm

@Christine Walsh: This is only slightly above normal. Remember this shot.

Curly from South Shields, United Kingdom

Rather different to our High Street with its empty boarded up shops.

21 Dec 2011 8:27pm

@Curly: Well, this is the biggest city of the Rhineland, and there are 6 millions of people (approx.) keen on shopping here, coming from several countries. Fortunately the biggest part of the crowd is moving within a rather small area, and it's still possible (but not easy) having a seat in one of Cologne's cafés. If this shopping craze will be enough to make also smaller shops survive - we'll see in January.