There is no doubt, as we move further into the new decade, we leave behind a gilded age; there is a societal distaste for the excesses of the previous 10 years that caused the economy to collapse like a brick house in an earthquake.

The easy money of sub-prime real estate and derivatives turned out to be a narcotic, and we’re still paying the price of withdrawal. Outside of our little bubble in Vancouver, the repercussions are still being felt. From Europe to Arizona, the recession may technically be over, but the economy is still in the toilet.

No matter what your opinion may be of the Rockefellers, the Carnegies, the Gateses – at least they built something tangible: railways, oil, software.

It was derivative trading that inflated the most recent economic bubble – a product so nebulous that even stockbrokers didn’t know what the hell they were buying and selling. Today, the estimated value of these phantom products is $800 trillion, or 11 times the world economy. How is this even possible?

In February of this year, GM announced that it was shutting down its Hummer division, one of the icons of the era. And another symbol of the last decade – Sex in the City – appears to be ready to bomb at the box office with its latest cinematic offering. Curiously, dropping $1,000 on a pair of Jimmy Choos doesn’t hold the social currency it once did. Critics have rightfully skewered the movie for the dissonance between its characters and the reality of, say, losing one’s home. Even fantasy has its limits.

So this is the cultural context where we find ourselves in June 2010.

Small businesses have always operated close to the bone, but now more than ever they are looking to do more with less. And that’s positive.

In this issue of the magazine, we look at exactly that: how businesses are using the power of thrift, not only to keep more cash in their jeans, but also to get better and more efficient. There’s nothing quite like looking at your cash-flow projections to help sharpen the mind.

And there are a myriad of ways of making thrift work for you. From cutting expenses, to finding new suppliers; from externalizing costs to using software automation. All businesses are doing it – some consciously and others unconsciously.

And, of course, in any trend, there are opportunities. In our cover story, for example, local call centre TigerTel has identified thrift as a great tool to pick up new customers.

No matter what your business is, your customers are open to new ways of doing things. That’s an opportunity if your product is evolving – and it’s a threat if it’s not.

Victor Chew Wong, Publisher