From A Paper Economy:
Sham Economy Becoming Clearer
With the Feds announcement yesterday and some other rumors it appears that we are officially entering the period whereby we realize what happens next.
For over a year now we have been speculating on the state of the economy and how the government would respond should their initial massive stimulus effort fail to bring on a sustained recovery.
The Continue reading
At the beginning of summer a friend told me a story about an employee they had previously had. That employee left the business for a better job (caz the grass is always greener, y’know?). Anyways, The economy crashed a short while later and this person was out of a job. Out came the unemployment benefits and said person was now earning a pretty solid living at the hands of Uncle Same. This person had been an important manager at my friends business, and knowing this, decided to give my friend a call and attempt to get the job back. They spoke on the phone, and after the former employee did some calculations on a pad of paper, this person determined that they would make better money from their unemployment payout then from re-entering the work force as a manager at a small business. Long story short, former employee did not take the job.
The reason I bring this up today? This article in the wall street journal, written today, August 9th 2010 highlights almost the exact same story on a much larger scale, about 4 months after my friend had told me of a similar issue. Some interesting quotes from the wall street journal article:
Truck-stop operator Pilot Flying J says job postings don’t elicit many more applicants than they did when the unemployment rate was below 5%.
Interesting right? The article goes on wondering, just like i am, why we aren’t seeing more job applicants now that the unemployment rate is almost double (9.5%):
With a 9.5% jobless rate and some 15 million Americans looking for work, many employers are inundated with applicants. But a surprising number say they are getting an underwhelming response, and many are having trouble filling open positions.
“This is as bad now as at the height of business back in the 1990s,” says Dan Cunningham, chief executive of the Long-Stanton Manufacturing Co., a maker of stamped-metal parts in West Chester, Ohio, that has been struggling to hire a few toolmakers. “It’s bizarre. We are just not getting applicants.”
The reason? Continue reading
From the Wall Street Journal:
Already, the GOP victors in last year’s gubernatorial contests are providing powerful contrasts to Mr. Obama’s policies. Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell erased his state’s nearly $2 billion deficit without raising taxes. Facing a $13 billion shortfall, a hostile Democratic legislature and more than $7 million in negative ads launched against him by labor unions, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie nonetheless balanced the budget while cutting taxes.
I just want to comment how amazing it is that a GOP governor burdened by a democratic legsilature was able to balance his states budget AND cut taxes, while Obama, who owns the house and senate has only suceeded in adding over a trillion dollars to our countries deficit. Not only are unemployment rates still hovering around 10%, but our budget is no where near balanced (and doesn’t look like it will be for the remainder of the Obama-nation) and Obama faces an all time low in approval rating.
I’ve been so busy these past few weeks I haven’t had a chance to write even 1 piece of original content. Blah. I’ve finally got some downtime at work so I’ll post a quick update on whats been going on.
I’ve been working nearly full time at Radius Group Commercial Real Estate in Santa Barbara as an intern/assistent to Scott Glenn. This is my dream job and I can’t even say how lucky I was to earn this spot in Scott’s office. A little backround – Scott has been one of the leaders in Commercial Real Estate sales in the Santa Barbara area for the last 22 years. The man and his office have been dropping knowledge on me so fast it has been a struggle to keep up. But without a doubt it has been and will continue to be one of the best experiences of my life. I love to learn, and every day I am forced to contribute to projects and tasks that are building up my Real Estate knowledge. I am lucky to be in a great position to draw off the awesome cumulative experience of Scott and his team (Whitney, Laureen, and Jason), as well as the other brokers and agents in the office. I’ll devote some more posts to writing about what I am learning and doing here as time permits.
Radius Group aside, I am still working as a marketing intern for AlwaysOnPC. In the last few weeks I set up a wordpress blog for the company. For anyone interested it was an awesome but time consuming experience. Continue reading
From Mish’s Global Economic Trend Analysis:
The police union in Bay Michigan has resorted to scare tactics threatening more violence and masked terrorists if the city suspends a handful of police officers.
Please consider Billboard Protest of Police Layoffs in Michigan Fuels Public Safety Debate
Police officers in Bay City, Mich., are being called domestic terrorists after renting billboard space to trumpet that the layoffs of five police officers in the town could lead to more shootings, stabbings, robberies and beatings.
The police say they paid for the two billboards that went up last week to bring attention to the impasse in negotiations between its union and city officials, who are seeking a 10.8 percent reduction in labor costs from eight unions to tackle a $1.66 million budget deficit for the fiscal year that began July 1. The billboards also spotlight the city’s decision to replace the roof on city hall for $1.6 million.
Heads or A Tale