Recession or rumor

There is a story told in economics class about a man who owned a dozen hot dog stands around the city and business was doing quite well. His son came home from college and told his dad that a recession was coming and so his dad started to cut back on inventory and advertising and his sales started to decrease and being worried about the coming bad times he closed some of his shops and this further hurt his bottom line and he retrenched even more and soon his business was in deep trouble. Recent reports of a coming recession may accomplish the same thing. The China trade war, the interest rate yield curve and the market drops for a few days and the rumors abound in the press about the coming bad times. This kind of news gets more readers than talking about low unemployment, high consumer confidence and rising wages. Bill Maher and NBC's Richard Engel are hoping for a recession. That is an example of the old bromide, cut off your hand to spite your face.