Back in black

 

When it comes to money, Americans just can”™t help but spend it.

 

We are a nation of spenders, not savers ”“ regardless of the state of the economy.

 

Billions of dollars changed hands over the Thanksgiving weekend as consumers sought to prove those nattering nabobs of negativism ”“ national retailers ”“ wrong about holiday sales.

 

More than 172 million shoppers visited stores and Web sites over what has become known as Black Friday weekend. That was up from 147 million shoppers last year, according to the National Retail Federation”™s survey.

 

And they spent more, too.

 

Shoppers doled out an average of $372.57, up 7.2 percent over the $347.55 spent last year. Total spending was estimated at $41 billion.

 

And when they weren”™t buying items, Americans indulged themselves at the movies spending some $218 million to watch the Top 10 grossing box-office releases over the five-day long Thanksgiving weekend. And that doesn”™t include hundreds of thousands of dollars for overpriced popcorn and candy bars.

 

Video games and consoles continue to prove to be recession-crushers as well.

 

And as a point of note as well as concern, the “experts” over at the National Bureau of Economic Research made it official last week when they declared the nation is in a recession. Most of us had a hunch about that already.

 

Bill Gates must have been turning cartwheels after learning his Microsoft Corp.”™s Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system was on track to sell 25 percent more than last year, as well as kick PlayStation3”™s fanny 3-1.

 

What”™s up fellow Americans?

 

Wall Street continues to feed off of our 401(k)s and we”™re on the hook for untold billions to bail out the financial sector ”“ and others. Yet we continue to spend, maybe more cautiously this season, but nonetheless we do it.

 

Maybe we”™re more optimistic than we let on. Maybe declining oil prices are getting us pumped up. Maybe we”™re encouraged by the bailouts.

 

Maybe you just can”™t bankrupt the holiday spirit.

 

On the other hand, as economists like to say (and which drove Harry Truman to demand, “Bring me a one-armed economist!”), January can be a long, cold, lean month. It”™s a tricky equation that features a consumer-driven economy (70 percent by some estimates) and consumers caught in a vise.