This is the craziest recession of all time! House prices aren’t plunging, consumer confidence rose last week by the biggest amount in 11 weeks (despite a Victorian lockdown), retail is a up a huge 12.2% for the year and the stock market has rebounded 35% since March 23.

That’s the good side of the post-Coronavirus crash. But it’s not all beer and skittles for everyone in Australia and I reckon after March next year, if we don’t have the world needling up with a vaccine, then even this optimist could join the pity party that gets drunk on Twitter every night.

As I said, this is the craziest recession of all time, with CommSec’s Ryan Felsman pointing out that “annual growth in retail spending in July is the strongest in 19 years!”

We can’t travel overseas or even interstate, so people out there are spending. “Aussies continue to hoover-up household goods, such as furniture, whitegoods and electrical items. In fact, the Bureau of Statistics (ABS) reported, ‘turnover in household goods was 30 per cent above the levels of July 2019.’ Ryan reported. “And why not?” he continues. “If you’re stuck at home, perhaps now is the time to act on some of those aggravating DIY projects that you never get around to doing? And upgrades to furniture and electrical equipment have been popular as we increasingly work from home – just ask Nick Scali and JB HiFi which have released bumper earnings results recently.”

It’s great that the Government rescued us from a crazy cause of the recession — a pandemic that made governments close down economies — but national and international leaders have to move heaven and hell to get normalcy back on track.

While retail numbers look strong, it’s because online has gone ballistic but lots of retailers are in dire straits.

This week Mosaic Brands (that owns Noni B, Katies, Rivers and Millers) is threatening to close 300-500 stores unless shopping centre landlords don’t play fair with rents. And this week on my Switzer TV Investing programme, the MD of Coca Cola Amatil told us CBD businesses are lucky to be on 30% turnover.

Online businesses are helping this surge in retail but conventional retailers who need people in shops, especially in CBD precincts or lesser shopping centres, are struggling.

And a notable cause is because big businesses that usually work in CBD office blocks have their staff at home. But how long will they play this game of hide and seek?

You see, men and women don’t live by retail alone — they have to work. And given JobKeeper has a ‘use by’ date of September for some and March for most, then our national leaders need to start getting real with those businesses that are holding back the economy.

Big business is squealing about closed borders, which is understandable. But big businesses aren’t even calling their staff back to work!

Business activity in the services sector has now contracted for five out of eight months this year. Victoria and its lockdown is retarding our recovery but it’s time the Premier, Gladys Berejiklian, started to ask Sydney’s big end of town CEOs why they aren’t getting their people back to work in the CBD?

Make them wear masks, stagger their starting times, shorten their working week so there are less in the office (with some work done at home) but stop this work-from-home strategy that has been great for golf clubs!

Some of my retiree financial planning clients are really cheesed off that weekdays are now like Saturdays with so-called white collar workers finding time for golf within their ‘busy’ workdays!

Did I say this was the craziest recession of all time?

I’ve loved the Government’s rescue plan but our national and state leaders can’t look at their popularity (Daniel Andrews aside) and lack the guts to start getting us all back to work in our normal places of employ.

If our leaders don’t help normalcy return, albeit with masks, social distancing and some sensible working from home, then come March we’ll end up with a real, non-crazy recession.

This will mean unemployment around 10%, collapsing consumer confidence, regrettable retail figures, slumping house prices and a double dip dive for the stock market.

Sure, I’m currently invested on the belief that a vaccine will come before year’s end. If that happens before March next year (when JobKeeper ends), we should be embracing a lot of what we once called normal. But that’s me betting. I want forceful national leadership to make my bet less risky.