"Economy"

What does this mean now? I view the current referrenced "Bad Economy" as purely emotional based...Or am I stating the obvious? I don't know about all of you, but the only affects I can realize out of the "bad economy" retoric is people not squandering their money so much as recently practiced.....(That's not entirely true....parking lot's are still full while people continue to go out to eat....Shopping carts are still being filled with junk food....You still see one person in just about every car...the roadways continue to be congested with people driving when really not neccessary...)...

I heard the other day a news spokesperson comment as to the latest $350bil "bailout"; One guy used an analogy of a house on fire; Only 1/2 extinguished...how we needed the other 1/2 to completely put the fire out.....The other gal says.."But what if the house really isn't on fire?"....I'm with her.....

Americans have been squandering there money...Now they're starting to save...It'll be painfull, but in the long-run, we'll prosper....HOWEVER, this continual "bail out" crap may just prolong it, or make it much, much worse....

Whattya think?>>>

I think things are bad. In the last few days I have learned of close friends who are losing homes. They dont live in big, fancy homes....or drive big cars. They are working people like school lunch lady and her husband a printing press operator....he lost his job(Downsizing at Duke Energy) and it has went downhill for them.

Another friend is a custom framer/carpenter, he hasnt worked in months and can't find a job. People are bidding framing here at $2.25 Sq Foot....he can't pay his help & insurance/taxes for 2.25 a foot!

We have had tens of thousands of jobs lost in this area. I am in Indiana and manufacturing means everything....and when them places close and send 10,000 to the unemployment office, you can guarantee 1/3 of them are gonna fall back on doing roofing, siding, framing...anything they can do to make an "under the table" dollar to "supplement" the unemployment.

I cant buy a job right now! We havnt been this slow in 4-5 years. I have 1 job signed and 1 ready to sign. I usually do interior work of a winter, but this year I havnt had much luck finding work.

Well enough ranting from me. Think the winter time blues is working on me....

Best to you all, Randy>>>

BOA bought Merriyl Lynch. Now they want another 10 BILLION dollars of TAXPAYERS money to make the purchase work for them. To make it profitable. Crooks, all of them. No different than INSURANCE companies, AIG for instance. What do we do about it? Not a damn thing. ooooops forgot, we vote in the chosen one and his VP the senator from MBNA.....to run the country. Anyone who thinks the banks will not get their way now that Biden is the second most powerful man in the "free world", is a fool.

.......sorry, I get red not blue when this topic comes up....chit just sends me over the edge.. :S>>>

Google "The Senator from MBNA" and this is what you find.....

Obama's "new politics" are looking an awful lot like the old politics, and Rick Moran looks at Joe Biden to see how his record meshes with the Prophet Barack's (Hope! Change! Waffles!) soaring endorsement of him. As one example, how does the Harbinger of Hope's professed deep concern for the economic health of the average American square with his running-mate's screwing of those same Joe Six-Packs in the 2005 bankruptcy law?

It is unfortunate that if you were an underdog and looking for help from Senator Biden in getting out from under a load of debt by filing bankruptcy, you were given the back of his hand. It seems one of Senator Joe’s major contributors through the years was the bank holding company MBNA, the world’s largest issuer of credit cards who was pushing bankruptcy reform that would have been favorable to the credit card industry. Biden was one of the bill’s biggest proponents — and why not? MBNA executives contributed hundreds of thousands to his campaigns. And then there was the rather cozy personal relationship between Biden and MBNA executives:

"The relationship was also personal, with an MBNA executive’s buying Biden’s house at a favorable price, and one of his sons taking a job for a time as an MBNA management trainee, as the Wilmington News-Journal reported. Hey, it’s a small state.

"Biden returned MBNA’s favor by delivering key Democratic support for the company’s top legislative goal: the 2005 Bankruptcy Reform Act, which made it tougher for broke people to escape their credit card debt. Biden’s staff says he forced lenders to add special protections for low-wage workers and single mothers before he would back the bill."

What was it that Biden wrought with his support for this bill?

"It makes it harder for average people to file for bankruptcy protection; it makes it easier for landlords to evict a bankrupt tenant; it endangers child-support payments by giving a wider array of creditors a shot at post-bankruptcy income; it allows millionaires to shield an unlimited amount of equity in homes and asset-protection trusts; it makes it more difficult for small businesses to reorganize while opening new loopholes for the Enrons of the world; it allows creditors to provide misleading information; and it does nothing to rein in lending abuses that frequently turn manageable debt into unmanageable crises. Even in failure, ordinary Americans do not get a level playing field."

George Babbitt couldn’t have imagined a better bill.

As far as I know, the bill may have been worthwhile overall, but please --please-- let's not portray Joe Biden as some sort of fighter for the little guy.

Your text here>>>

Jed,

Why should anyone that irresponsibly used credit cards, ran up their debt under the promise of "use now, pay later", be allowed to legally steal all that stuff they bought with the bank's money?

I have never understood the ease of filing bankruptcy in this country.>>>

I don't know, why do you ask.>>>

I'll bring my take again. I have been ridiculed as a gloom and doom guy. Listen It doesn't matter if it is emotional or the media what ever it is ...........are you " prepared " cause it is happening and it is going to get worse much worse around the second or third quarter of this year. I have warned you .>>>

We all prepare as much as we can. Keep your powder dry!>>>

Thanks>>>

"Immoral and Predatory businesses should not be afforded special protections under the law."

.....Re: The senator from MBNA >>>

The above quote was from a response by HOP which has since dissapeared.>>>

On one hand, I'd say, how "prepared" we are simply depends on how much kool-aide we drank/or, how deep we bought into the "credit" mentality, artificial inflated values, (real estate/stocks, fiat money/etc....)....The kool-aide drinkers would simply die-off or get really sick before recovering...

However, with this "bail-out" crap,(IMHO), it will most-likely serverly affect all of us; Once again; To what degree, depends on our degree of "buy-in" to the above referrenced phenomenon(s). Personally, I withdrew all stocks 8-10 years ago figuring I could do better on my own....Unfortunately mostly in real estate.....We all knew, (I should say, the non-kool-aide consumers), the R/E market was over-inflated also...We'll just have to accept the fact we accumulated a more realistic amount of wealth....

Of course, if you had bought-in "full tilt" with the sheeples, and say, had a $250,000 home with a $50,000 mortgage a few years ago, and opted to sell and buy a $500,000 house, accumulating a $ 300,000 debt. hoping to increase your net worth a couple hundred thousand without really trying.......now there's no work, because of "the economy", the R/E prices are coming back into focus of where they should be...., Oh, and don't forget that 401k that took a $100,000 hit,.....Well,...there ya go....

I remember viewing a news clip awhile back; A news reporter was interviewing a participant following an Obama rally, (in Florida I think)....She was overcome with emotion...in tears, said ..."...Oh,...I'm just so happy...that I won't have to worry about filling my gas tank or making my mortgage payment; If I take care of HIM, he'll take care of me"......

Just sit back and relax......It'll all be okay......LOL or maybe COL....?????

>>>

We should have listened to Ron Paul when he had input on the bailout, he is one sharp cookie when it comes to government finance and economics. Most think he is an old crazy doctor....but not I.

My only worry right now is work. If I can find work we will be ok, but trying to win bids right now is like pissing in the west wind! I have never in my 15 years.....had to compete against so many low life jack leggs. Our unemployment rate is nearing 8-9%....and everyone you talk to is looking for work. Only guys who are working are the commercial guys. I have no commercial contacts to speak of, since we have always been residential and new construction.

I use to get a lot of work with the mortgage companies and real estate agents but now they have all went to using nationwide companies that sub the work to you, after keeping a chunk.....but I cant even get them to call us back, lol.

Enough crying from me. One thing about it...my life has never been "easy", and I wasnt born with a silver spoon handed to me, so I will do what I have always done.

Try to survive......and hope things get better and a big hail storm comes my way :woohoo:>>>

http://projects.nytimes.com/creditcrisis/recipients/table

Nice to see that Capital One is getting a nice fat chunk too. Obviously a bastion of free enterprise and absolutely no governement involvement or special laws have ever passed for them or their industry. it is always good and refreshing to see these scum advertise on our nations airwaves too. Good for the economy, of course. Bad for people and bad for American'T.

But HEY! America employs no lobbyists.

What's in YOUR wallet? :huh:

Change? :laugh: Yeah, that'd be the "change" we are geting!! :huh:>>>

I heard that the keys are really haveing a hard time with everything from work to houseing prices droping like a rock not a good place to live. :side:>>>

jackpinesavage - ??? "keys"? Are you talking about the Florida Keys? If so, the answer is yes. Housing prices have really fallen. Work is slow because the speculative buyers are gone and so is the easy access to money. In the past 90 days or so, we have scene a huge drop in our calls. Right now is the time we normally expect to be slammed but the phones are hardly ringing at all. Historically, in the spring things slow down. The rainy season is the summer and we usually see a big increase in calls again. We will have to wait and see.

Regarding the so called "experts" forecasting several more years of decline; why should we believe them? Most have been wrong and I didn't hear anyone forecasting our current crisis (until it had already started).

I find myself glued to the TV looking for any good news about the future and I'm usually disappointed by what I hear. But, I am an optimist. I believe the media has perpetrated this enormous mindfuck, but I don't yet know why. For most of us, we still have to pay our mortgage/rent, still have to buy groceries, still have to pay our phone bills and other utilities. We still have to drive our cars and provide our families with cloths, shoes and medicine. Life still goes on. I'm not suggesting that we put our heads in the sand. To the contrary, I want our government to stop spending my unborn grandchildren's future incomes. How many generations will it take to payoff the trillions in taxes being given to mega corporations so that they can retire their bad debt and acquire new investments at Wall Street's fire sales?

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