If you listened to the talking heads last week, you knew that everyone was holding their breath waiting to find out just how bad black friday sales were going to be. If you listen to the so-called experts, there was no reason for hope and the holiday shopping season would only be the nail in the proverbial coffin.

I suspected that people were not listening to the experts and saw a reason to hope in this economy. As touchy feely as “hope” can be in an area that is defined tightly by the ink of black and white P&L reports, hope, faith and confidence is the driving force behind an economy. We win big because we feel like nothing can go wrong and so we buy, buy, buy and invest, invest, invest. We lose big because the air of an entire way of life is deflated beneath us taking our will and drive to win away.

It’s all about the feeling.

So when economists said that this holiday shopping season would be the worst on record, and that people just weren’t buying like they used to, we could take the prophets at their word, or change the future.

According to Reuters, online sales spiked from a year ago. Some reports used the word “dwarfed” to describe the upsurge and this morning, economists were trying to explain away how they were wrong by saying there was “pent up demand”.

Yes, there was. And the economists missed it. The prophets prophesied doom and were wrong! Mind you, these are the same folks who willingly peddled the economic concepts that buried the mortgage market in the past year.

Folks, I am not an economist. I am not a financial adviser. I know what I hear on a day to day basis talking to people like you and I. I know people are buying. Yes, they are being cautious. But they are buying.

In fact, I may buy a new car before the end of the year when the dealers are dying to make any deal they can. I’ll save some money, and still buy, buy, buy. Don’t buy the hype. This is not the end of the world and the longer we go, the closer we are to the end.