How Is Your Local Economy?  

Well here we have been hit by logging and fishing ups and downs for several years, lately more downs.
A big portion of our economy is from cruise ship traffic. The merchants in town say this summer passengers were not spending as much previous years.
Some charter fishing boats also say they had less people wanting to fish. A lot of these guys have repeat customers every year and seemed to do o.k.
Ships were running pretty full, have heard that maybe with the price of gasoline, a cruise is an affordable vacation by comparison.
Our fuel is still high, and food prices seem higher each week.
Property is still moving, although there are several houses in my neighborhood that are sitting, but some sellers can afford to hold out for their prices for a bit.
The restuarants seem to be holding their own. There are several closed for the season, so our selection isn't a big as summer, but no crowds.
of course everyone is a bit skittish over retirement accounts losing value!
next?
Nan

Manufacturing is way down here with lots of people laid off. Same for the food processing industry(Schwans Corporate headquarters and several meat/fowl packing plants). The tech industries are still hiring as are the wind turbine manufacturing/maintenance companies. The college I attend has a hiring freeze and anyone retiring isn't being replaced and programs with only a few students are being cut. I picked a good time to be switching careers :lol: 2 more yeas of school to go and I hope by then the economy recovers.

The housing market is returning to sane levels. Most businesses are doing OK. Big hospital employer isn't going to match 401k in 2009 but no talk of layoffs. Banking businesses are down, but having worked for the big local ones, they deserve it. Their credit ratings and values are in the toilet where I thought they belonged years ago.

Rio Tinto, our big local miner has been reclaiming its' overburden piles in real estate. They seem to be doing better there than in mining.

High tech is doing well.

business sucks, what's new this afternoon?

I draw your attention to 1973: oil embargo
bad then, bad later.
pretty much everything in an industrialized society is painfully subject to "the cost of energy"

oil doubled in the 70's; see hyperinflation, 80's
oil did not double in the 00's; it quadrupled.
taking bets on inflation?

free trade reigns - okay, how's any manufacture paying $15 per hour supposed to compete with a Mexican/Asian economy paying $15 per month? you know, in bulk, shipping is not all that expensive . . .

rescue the auto companies? not in my book. they had 25 years plus to come up with fuel efficient vehicles, electric, whatever, and all they've done is pay CEO's hundreds of millions for abysmal performance in both up and down markets. time to wave good-bye Detroit, Hello Asia!

we 'the world' cannot afford to support that kind of 'Detroit management'

GM had an electric car when?
development ceased <when> because <what>?
the Shah died?
they abandoned the concept because....?

the folks that brought you the savings and loan scandal moved on to the home mortgage market, and the banks did not notice the scammers had no new clothes. shame on them - let 'em die in their greedy gutter.

every day some new company / industry / segment wants a bailout / loan.
folks, this is capitalism.
you win, you die.
executives are not entitled to win millions while the company dies, and then seek billions from the taxpayers so you can pay your top dogs "awards" to bribe their loyalty.

companies babble on about how they have to pay so much money to these top executives because they are so talented.
what, all four of them individuals?
anyone who has actually been in business, versus Never-Never-Land, know that the secretaries run the show, the executive just sign where they are told.

show me any slice of the population that won't do the same job as the $600 million / year exec for half that (one tenth, one one-hundredth anyone?)

the emperor is naked, and no, these executives really are not so smart (see: recession, impending business failure, planning - failure to)

auto execs: we need billions to cover 12-18 months of slow sales.
home household: do you have enough cash to last 12 months with no income? did you get paid billions to not save any money?

can't make it? then die and let the rest of the economy move on.

<sheesh***t> software ate ate it all, three times.

no matter
politics is verboten, which is no matter because no entity can magically reverse the smoke and mirror nonsense currently implemented.

oh-bama or bama-cain, smoke&mirror do not pan out - period.

no pain, no gain.

we're in the "got pain?" mode.

[quote=D.C.;250193]My assistant manager and I have been thinking about writing to our state representative to suggest an economic stimulus package for the two of us. We'd be happy with $100,000 each. :)

What blows my mind is that when the banks first asked for a bailout, the government decided on an "economic stimulus package" for the taxpayer. I was underwhelmed by the amount I received and quite frankly, was appalled that congress would add to our mounting debt by giving money to taxpayers.

The stimulus package didn't work. Most people spent their money on gas and groceries.

I would much rather have the government keep my tax dollars but use some fiscal common sense when it comes to trying to get us out of a recession.

At the rate the Bush administration is committing taxpayer money to various bailout packages, the Obama administration is going to find itself in a huge financial hole come 2009.[/quote]

Remember, Obama signed his name on the dotted line to approve this, he was as much for this as the rest of them, and it has been a Democratically run House and Congress for going on 3 years.

Sorry closing this thread down. We have a strict policy no political discussion here there are plenty of forums that focus on those topics. These topics seem to do nothing but offend people.