Let's play "Who Killed The Economy"

[LeeH]

http://www.portfolio.com/interactive-features/2008/06/Who-Killed-The-Economy

[legion]

Eh, I don't like some of the tradeoff when I feel both are equally to blame.

[cgarr]

We have never been busier. No one killed it here! I wish someone would kill it so I don't have to work so many hours.

[Rick V]

Greed, game over, now give me my prize so I can get on with it!

[Mule]

Lbj?

[Joeaksa]

Originally Posted by cgarr

We have never been busier. No one killed it here! I wish someone would kill it so I don't have to work so many hours.

Same here. No recession in our area and most of the people I talk with are busy as hell.

[cgarr]

Originally Posted by Joeaksa

Same here. No recession in our area and most of the people I talk with are busy as hell.

I think its a manufactured recession, NO I know its manufactured, its the only way the dems can win! isn't it sad, the only way you can win is if people think they are hurting.

[RoninLB]

Let's play "Who Killed The Economy"


sounds like obama's story line to link McCain to Bush's economic policies.

[Rick Lee]

My company is hurting, but it's our fault and because of strong competition. Has nothing to do with the government.

[Buckterrier]

Originally Posted by Rick V

Greed, game over, now give me my prize so I can get on with it!

+1

[jluetjen]

At the end of the day it's all the fault of the consumers. If we have a problem, it's because consumers are a bit too willing to spend beyond their means. But then, until people realize that they have seen the enemy, and it is them -- nothing is going to change. BTW, I'm not holding my breath that this realization is going to get me elected any time soon.

[Zeke]

The economy has hit selected sectors. Unemployment nos. have been rising for consecutive quarters. The auto industry and construction are the worst off at this time.
It might be awhile before the the local dry cleaners goes out of business.

[Jims5543]

Originally Posted by cgarr

I think its a manufactured recession, NO I know its manufactured, its the only way the dems can win! isn't it sad, the only way you can win is if people think they are hurting.

Wish I could say the same here.

I get 5 phonecalls a day from people looking for work, its gotten so bad I do not answer the phone unless I recognize the number, I got sick from hearing all these guys and their nightmares.

My business is off by a huge amount, I am probably doing 1/10th the business I was doing 4 years ago.

Business is so bad I am getting 16K in overpaid taxes this year after getting 11K in overpaid taxes last year after getting 6K in overpaid taxes the year before that.

I have laid off 10 employees and now only have 3 and I am about to lay off 2 more.

Everyone I talk to is hurting, from builders to title companies to car dealerships to anything in the service sector. Dozens of restaurants in this town alone have closed down and most of them were big chain brands, tons of retail stores closed down, tons of houses being foreclosed on, cars and boats are being repo'd like no tomorrow.

On a local car forum representing most of South Florida every week another "I got laid off" thread pops up.

Everything is fine here, no slowing economy for us its all make believe.

[Jims5543]

BTW- I personally am in good shape and the only reason I even keep employees is because I feel a sort of responsibility for them. I probably threw away a lot of money keeping guys in jobs that I did not need just because I did not have the heart to let them go. Almost all of them left on their own seeing the writing on the wall, almost all of the 10 people I have let go moved far away to Georgia and Tennessee.

I have a nice chunk in the bank I am selling off most of the toys and hunkering down, this is not the worst of it, when the rest of the country catches up then it will get bad. Many say, its good here no problem here, be ready, it was like someone turned off a switch here it happened almost overnight.

[campbellcj]

FWIW I am buried in business (nearly doubled revs over last year) and having trouble filling positions I've had open for more than year. These are $75-100K IT sector desk jobs and there is nobody qualified on the market, it seems. My wife's business in a completely different industry -- heavily reliant upon discretionary consumer spending -- is also holding up just fine. Clearly there are some people hurting out there, but that is ALWAYS the case, and I think 80% of this latest wave is pure liberal media hype and election-year dirty pool.

[Porsche-O-Phile]

Thankfully we're pretty busy right now, but that's because of careful positioning over the last few months/years with selected clients. We've avoided doing residential work, knowing that residential was a house of cards that was on borrowed time (and borrowed everything else, especially money, apparently). I think we're going to be okay although there's a lot of uneasiness out there and nobody's going to go gangbusters crazy like they've done in years past. Steady, sustained, manageable pace. That's just fine by me and I actually prefer it to traditional "boom/bust" cyclical nonsense that tends to define design/construction.

I'm thanking my lucky stars that I got out of aviation as I did a few years ago. At the time it was a terribly painful decision for me (I loved flying, I was very good at it and it broke my heart to leave the industry), but every passing day seems to underscore how much it was the correct one. I would NOT want to be in that industry right now with its perilous dependence on skyrocketing fuel costs. I feel for a lot of the guys still there that I left behind (who didn't have the benefit of having a "hedge" in another field like I did). I suspect that the coming months/years are going to be very, very bad for a lot of guys still flying, unless they're very high on the seniority lists. . .

As painful as all this is going to be, I'm hopeful that it's "growing pains" and it serves the ultimate end of making us stronger and more resilient/sustainable/sensible as a society and an economy. We've put WAY too much focus on wanton drunken-sailor spending for the last 10-or-so years. It's about time that we got back down to earth and started to temper some of that idiocy with common sense. It does not benefit us to simply be stimulated into a constant fervor of crazed spending at all times. I think we're finally starting to (maybe) realize that. The pullback will be hard, it WILL involve a recession and significant contraction in some areas, but I'm hopeful that it instills a sensibility in our economy that has been sorely lacking for a long, long time.

[slodave]

Originally Posted by campbellcj

FWIW I am buried in business (nearly doubled revs over last year) and having trouble filling positions I've had open for more than year. These are $75-100K IT sector desk jobs and there is nobody qualified on the market, it seems. My wife's business in a completely different industry -- heavily reliant upon discretionary consumer spending -- is also holding up just fine. Clearly there are some people hurting out there, but that is ALWAYS the case, and I think 80% of this latest wave is pure liberal media hype and election-year dirty pool.

I'm qualified . I just choose to try and make IT on my own. This year is better than last, y about 1.5x for me.

[Porsche-O-Phile]

I keep coming up with GWB versus Alan Greenspan in the finals, with GWB winning (after all, I think Greenspan was either acting on GWB's orders or at his behest in slashing rates). Entertaining, but I think laying the entire mess at GWB's feet is kind of stupidly simplistic. It's a combination of a lot of things. GWB (and Greenspan) certainly had a role to play in it and didn't help matters, but I don't think it's any one person's fault entirely.

[RoninLB]

Greenspan was in charge of maintaining the $ value. He started this crap.

The current Fed Res Chair better hope his bs better not cause a severe liquidity crisis. Their propaganda inflation #'s is screaming bs. He speaks without creditability.

Chase bank is currently asking 1/3 down on their jumbo home mortgages from high end high rating borrowers that could buy the house for cash if they wanted. Commercial paper is in worse shape. Try to keep $50-150M floating from a solid Co is almost a lost cause around here. We'll know soon enough how bad it'll be. We've lost $1T in wealth so far and losing another $1-3T is not out of the question.

Dem full control of Congress and the Pres will be acid on the cake.

[Rick V]

I am still very busy at work, but my customers are tightening thier belts. I am seeing people putting off doing maintance on the car that they would have done in the past. I am also seeing alot of fuel lights n in the dashboards when I get in a car. These are signs of scared people. Most of my customers drive BMW's, Porsches and Mercedes, so we arn't telking about the regular working stiffs. When you see these people "hunkering down" it is time to take notice. I started to cut back over a year ago.
Case and point. When I started at my current job, gas was $1.50 a gal, yesterday it was $4.50. My cost to go to work has trippled in 3 years.
It isn't manufactured, and it is hurting the working stiff like me harder that the rest of the world.