Consumer confidence ticked upward for the first time since 2007. Around the world, consumers are becoming more comfortable with the prospect of shelling out some cash, even if they're still approaching the notion with caution.

According to a survey conducted by The Nielsen Company between September 28 and October 16, 2009, consumer confidence was highest in India, with Indonesia and Norway following. Japan, Latvia, Portugal, and South Korea were at the other end of the spectrum, though South Korea did show a significant quarterly improvement.

This is bizarre at best but its true. In Latvia there lives a man named Viktor Mirosiichenko who heads a company called Kontora Loan Company. Who is this man and what is so unusual about him? He will make a loan to you if you sign an "agreement" and pledge "your immortal soul" as collateral.

Mr. Mirosiichenko's company employs no debt collectors for those who refuse to pay back the loan, nor will he employ violence against those who don't pay back. Signatures on the agreements show only the first name and do not show any documents.

Few people reading today's news will pay much attention to Latvia's debt being cut to junk. So why even spend time reading about this small insignificant country?

Remember back on February 22, 2008 when the British bank Northern Rock went insolvent and had to be taken over by the state. No one back then really paid much attention. It was a small news item and didn't impress most people. What most people didn't notice was that Northern Rock was one of the top five mortgage lenders in Britain. Looking back, the failure of Northern Rock was probably the beginning of our current banking crisis.

The Baltic country of Latvia is struggling through the recession along with the rest of the world, but its leaders have taken an unusual approach to the situation. According to the Wall Street Journal, Latvia's Security Police recently detained economics lecturer Dmitrijs Smirnovs for two days for expressing pessimism about the current crisis.

Apparently, this was not the first foray by the Latvian police into the public discussion about economic prospects. Officials have been studying newspaper reports, chat room conversations, even text messages, for Negative Nellies violating the country's laws against spreading false or scurrilous info about the economy.

If such a law were passed in the U.S., whose head would go on the chopping block first? Certainly the Wall Street Journal is a wellspring of negativity. Fox and MSNBC are chronically aggrieved. I wouldn't want to be George Will or Rush Slimebaugh Limbaugh when the brownshirts start rounding up naysayers.

As a BloggingStocks writer, I might have to go underground myself. Just in case, I want to assure you that the economy is doing just fine; great, actually. Go buy oodles of stocks, Comrade.