Real Estate Market / Inflation / Recession / Depression (Denver, Gunnison: mortgage, loan, work)

[DOUBLE H]

Good post Jazzlover. Speaking of luxuries, I was in Mesa Mall here in Grand Junction and was walking past Zales Jewelers and noticed everything has been moved out. Mervyns had been defunct in Colorado for several months but the Grand Junction Mervyns had stayed in business until just recently, finally packing it in a couple months ago. One store that has been doing well is the local tall and big mans clothing store, whose business is up 25% fromlast year with last years business up from the year before. One thing to consider about that, though. According the the store manager, a lot of his business is coming from folks who live in Rifle, Parachute, and the surrounding area. Makes sense to me. Does anyone out there know any roughnecks, semi drivers, or pipeline hands employed by Halliburton who are 98 lb. weaklings?

[brightdoglover]

Anecdotally (from here outside Boston), my local supermarket has stopped carrying a kind of artisan bread because the maker stopped making it- "too expensive" for ingredients.
My store where I buy dog food in bulk is out of the kind I buy (Nutro kibble) and they have no idea when they'll have more- the manufacturer sent a letter saying that they cannot find the ingredients on the market (and do not want to sacrifice quality).
An article in the Boston Globe said that very high-end luxury items are flying out the door, with prices being cut- Ferrari, boat, etc.
And still I can hardly back up my Toyota at the supermarket because I cannot see past the honkin' SUVs and tinted-window minivans.

[Bob from down south]

American Airlines cutting an eighth of their domestic capacity this year, retiring 45-50 aircraft, planning layoffs.

Oh, and $15 for the first checked bag. Ughh.

AMR Corporation Announces Significant Capacity Reductions, Aircraft Retirements and Additional Revenue Growth Efforts (broken link)

The money quote: "The airline industry as it is constituted today was not built to withstand oil prices at $125 a barrel, and certainly not when record fuel expenses are coupled with a weak U.S. economy"

I strongly believe that the entire airline industry is already circling the drain.

The future's a blight.

[jazzlover]

Originally Posted by Bob from down south

American Airlines cutting an eighth of their domestic capacity this year, retiring 45-50 aircraft, planning layoffs.

Oh, and $15 for the first checked bag. Ughh.

AMR Corporation Announces Significant Capacity Reductions, Aircraft Retirements and Additional Revenue Growth Efforts (broken link)

The money quote: "The airline industry as it is constituted today was not built to withstand oil prices at $125 a barrel, and certainly not when record fuel expenses are coupled with a weak U.S. economy"

I strongly believe that the entire airline industry is already circling the drain.

The future's a blight.

More proof of the point that I've been trying to make here: The way American's currently wasteful, auto/suburbia-centered lifestyle is structured, we won't have to run out of oil to wreck it, all we have to do is run out of CHEAP oil. I think we're there.

[CosmicWizard]

Bob wrote: The future's a blight.

Keep affirming this thought, and it will become increasingly real....FOR YOU!

[Bob from down south]

Originally Posted by NewAgeRedneck

Bob wrote: The future's a blight.

Keep affirming this thought, and it will become increasingly real....FOR YOU!

An old friend of mine has a saying: "You can rub it, and you can scrub it, but you can't shine $#!#."

What I see happening in the economy right now is just ugly. No amount of rubbing and scrubbing can shine it up. Pretending like we're not swimming...no drowning...in debt won't make things better. Turning off the TV when the tornado warning comes on (maybe because it's interrupting The Simpsons) won't keep the twister from remodeling your house. Best not to be in the living room whan that happens, but hey, some folks would rather take their chances with Homer than spend a few hours in the basement.

All the government's actions so far are desperate measures to enable even more debt, more consumption, more excess, and a setup for even more pillaging of the treasury by the pigmen of the banking sector. Nobody is talking about how we get out of this--or if we can get out of this--long term. And one thing I know for sure, is you do not borrow your way out of debt. We have to pay the piper at some point, and when we do it's going to take decades to climb out of this hole. Ask the Japanese---it will not be fun. It will be a blight.

"Thinking big" isn't working any more. Thinking smaller, compact, efficient, and unencumbered by debt is a better idea. Market forces are just beginning to make that quite clear all across the looted plains. In Colorado too. Maybe especially in Colorado, as Jazz points out here. Unfortunately it will take the financial equivalent of a brick in the face to get many people to see that. And some of those bricks are already flying...energy prices, credit/debt crisis, housing bubble collapse, inflation etc. Deny away, but the bricks will leave a mark. IMHO, one ought to at least try to duck...

Some things are ugly enough that you just can't look at them and find a way to be happy, and bubbly, and light-spirited. Little kids should be able to live their lives unburdened by the realities of the world. Not adults. My idea of thinking positive is to acknowledge the severity of this bad situation, and hunkering down to do the things necessary to dig our way out. Not taking $1200 of money borrowed by the government on my behalf and blowing it at WalMart.

[Bob from down south]

Oops, forgot to mention oil peaked above $132/bbl on the NYMEX today.

What will $7/gal diesel and $6 gas mean for this economy?

Naw, disregard, the future's simply too bright for that to happen.

[jazzlover]

Interesting comments from the Fed today, oil inventories down, Dow down over 200 points as I type this--not a pretty picture.

People keep saying, "Well, OK, suggest something." Well, this is what has to change:

While people in many other countries are saving money, and that money is being invested in manufacturing capability, technological advances, and infrastructure improvements, Americans are borrowing money and spending it on--what?--McMansions and goofing off. (Colorado is a living example of that.) American corporations are (quite logically, given the present economic environment) increasingly making their investments in foreign operations, and taking the employment and other economic benefits to those countries. Meanwhile, foreign companies investing in the US are increasingly investing what money they invest here into what remaining natural resources the US has--effectively controlling those resources for themselves. (Check the ownership of resource companies doing business in the US these days and see how many are foreign-controlled.) Americans--well, those few Americans who actually have some money to invest--are increasingly investing their money in foreign stocks, bonds--even currencies--because those are more lucrative places to invest their money. Of course, that doesn't do much for American jobs or businesses, but who can blame them? And, of course, while some of the most feckless regimes around the world actually seem to be getting their act together when it comes to economics, the US legislative and executive branches of the government seem to be able to do little and what they do accomplish is usually wrong. (The ethanol fiasco is a good example.) They could wreck an anvil with a rubber mallet.

So, there's a good place to start. Start changing some of those things in a positive direction and things might actually improve in the US (and Colorado). Until then, things will just continue to circle the drain a few more times, with a few more bits and pieces periodically heading into the sewer. It's really a shame to watch the most economically powerful country on the planet slowly dismantle itself because both its leadership and population can't quit its own self-indulgences.

[SheridanL]

Gee, so you ALL think that, since you were little tikes, you DIDN'T worry about the price of gas and groceries?? Come on, we have and, always will!!

The "economy" as it were.... has always been a "red herring". It predicts our lifestyle and (most of all) what we will and will not spend!!

Years ago when I bought my first home (at 17, by the way)...I could never imagine spending more than 35 thousand. NOW,....that amount is a mere pittence for a car!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Change is enevitable...( maybe a little fast speed) right now but, enevitable.

I agree whole heartably/sp? .....with Jazzlover ( he is usually right on ) ..however... IF we ALL fall into the blackhole of doom....why bother trying to second guess where and when we will live or end up????

Go exactly where you LOVE the landscape and neighborhood........because, if you don't,....you are pretty much hosed anyway!!!!!!!!! Right?????????

[Bob from down south]

Debt is the enemy. Debt is the mind-killer. (Sorry Mr. Herbert)

Consumers can't save the economy - May. 21, 2008

"The borrower is slave to the lender"