Out of Business From Recession in OC (Anaheim, Irvine: rental car, low income)

[buckeyenative01]

Originally Posted by skilaketahoe

A bit of good news - virgin airlines' vaustralia now has $A1199 return fares for Sept-December 09 from Melbourne to LA. ( idon't know what the LA-Mel-LA fare is). The tourist families usually spend time and money in and around Anaheim which is good for business. Pity the OC doesn't promote itself though.

Besides Disneyland, Knotts and the beach, what else is there to promote?

[antibes]

Originally Posted by missionhome

Pottery Barn and the Body Shop at Fashion Island both closed and did not renew their leases.

Illuminations, a high quality candle shop by Yankee Candle, will close at South Coast Plaza, the Brea Mall, and downtown Disney.

The Habit at the Lab near South Coast Plaza will close

OMG, Pottery barn??? I haven't been in SoCal since June 2008. I felt sick to my stomach when I saw a whole bunch of shops in Newport Beach and Laguna had closed down. They had been there for years. It was a bad sign. If Z-Gallerie goes under, I will....!!!

Thank your government for that, and free-trade agreements they signed. They sold you off for a penny, really to cheap labor from India and trinket production from China that replaced local ones. China is still doing well.

The US government began prostituting chinese goods instead of national goods in full steam in mid 1990's. While Chinas export numbers are the second highest in the world, their imports are half of the U.S.
The rapid climb in China's economy while the US economy started waning was particularly prominent during G W Bush's era:
File:Prc1952-2005gdp.gif - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


----------------------------------------------------------

"After his 2000 election, President George W. Bush made free trade a central part of his economic program, and pushed hard to obtain fast-track powers. With the Trade Act of 2002, Congress restored for five years fast-track trade rules for the White House."
Pros & Cons of Free Trade Agreements

Consumer products (china's specialty): "In 2007, the U.S. imported $475 billion, up from $443 billion in 2006, and exported $146 billion."
So, the country imported $475 billion while only exporting $146 billion? What kind of free and just trade agreement may this be?

"Industry and construction account for about 48% of China's GDP. Around 8% of the total manufacturing output in the world comes from China itself. China ranks third worldwide in industrial output."
"China has become a preferred destination for the relocation of global manufacturing facilities."

"International trade makes up a sizeable portion of China's overall economy."
"On November 1991, China joined the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) group, which promotes free trade and cooperation the in economic, trade, investment, and technology spheres. China served as APEC chair in 2001, and Shanghai hosted the annual APEC leaders meeting in October of that year."To gain WTO entry, all prospective WTO members were required to comply with certain fundamental trading disciplines and offer substantially expanded market access to other members of the organization. Many major trading entities—among them the United States, the European Union, and Japan—shared concerns with respect to China's accession. These concerns included obtaining satisfactory market access offers for both goods and services, full trading rights for all potential Chinese consumers and end-users, nondiscrimination between foreign and local commercial operations in China, the reduction of monopolistic state trading practices, and the elimination of arbitrary or non-scientific technical standards. China and other WTO members worked to achieve a commercially viable accession protocol."

"In 1999, Premier Zhu Rongji signed a bilateral U.S.–China Agricultural Cooperation Agreement, which lifted longstanding Chinese prohibitions on imports of citrus, grain, beef, and poultry. In November 1999, the United States and China reached a historic bilateral market-access agreement to pave the way for China's accession to the WTO. As part of the far-reaching trade liberalization agreement, China agreed to lower tariffs and abolish market impediments after it joins the world trading body. Chinese and foreign businessmen, for example, would gain the right to import and export on their own – and to sell their products without going through a government middleman. After reaching a bilateral WTO agreement with the EU and other trading partners in summer 2000, China worked on a multilateral WTO accession package. China concluded multilateral negotiations on its accession to the WTO in September 2001.

The U.S. is one of China's primary suppliers of semiconductors and electronic components, power-generating equipment, aircraft and parts, computers and industrial machinery, raw materials, waste and scrap, and chemical and agricultural products. However, U.S. exporters continue to have concerns about fair market access due to China's restrictive trade policies and U.S. export restrictions. Intellectual property theft makes many foreign companies wary of doing business in mainland China. Some foreign politicians and manufacturers also say the value of the yuan is artificially low and gives export from mainland China an unfair advantage. These and other issues are behind the recent push for greater protectionism by some in the US Congress, including a 27.5% consumer tax on imports. According to U.S. statistics, China had a trade surplus with the U.S. of $170 billion in 2004, more than doubling from 1999. Wal-Mart, the United States' largest retailer, is China's 7th largest export partner, just ahead of the United Kingdom."

"The U.S. trade deficit with China reached $232.5 billion in 2006, as imports grew 18%. China's share of total U.S. imports has grown from 7% to 15% since 1996. At the same time, the share of many other Asian countries' imports to the United States fell, from 39% in 1996 to 21.1% in 2005. "

China doesn't bother about people and basic environmental policies

"A 1998 WHO report on air quality in 272 cities worldwide concluded that seven of the world's 10 most polluted cities were in China. According to China's own evaluation, two-thirds of the 338 cities for which air-quality data are available are considered polluted – two-thirds of them moderately or severely so. Respiratory and heart diseases related to air pollution are the leading causes of death in China."

[antibes]

Originally Posted by Morphous01

This is just my opinion but I use to work for IKEA and I find there furniture cheep. It looks nice and I LOVE the style of there products which seem to be whats called a contemporary look but it just does not last long...

At my mothers place we have furniture that is 70 years old and I once been to a persons home who had furniture that was 200 years old, like to see if IKEA's stuff could last that long.

Ive been told that there use to be a hole industry that made furniture by hand and solid wood somewhere in the middle of the country but its all dried up now because modern company's build there furniture in China to cut cost. For the most part, its nothing more then shredded up wood mixed with glue..lol

Why you sound so surprised?

IKEA's furniture was made for low-income families with the purpose of trying to find ways to offer lowest possible rates for them. Thus, half of their stock is not made to last very long and this has been known for years, and even something that used to be a part of their promotion ages ago. They made furniture, multi-function, for bucket rates to be a temp item until families get on their feet and can afford better. Particularly things for kids rooms, like beds and other things that they soon grow out of and need not be a lifetime item, was common with IKEA.

IKEA hires a lot of labor from prisons and from reform programs. Its good; gives them a chance for vocational training, and some small income while they do their time.
No 'made in china' by IKEA. \
.
Some of their things, the slightly more expensive ones, actually last as good as any other brand. Its the cheapest ones that have a 1-2 year life span.

[cabolissa]

I don't necessarily agree... I hear people say this all the time but my 12 year old daughter is currently sleeping on the same full size bed (metal frame w/headboard & footboard) platform bed that I bought for $150 from IKEA when I was 18 for college (that was 19 years ago)!

[Morphous01]

Originally Posted by antibes

OMG, Pottery barn??? I haven't been in SoCal since June 2008. I felt sick to my stomach when I saw a whole bunch of shops in Newport Beach and Laguna had closed down. They had been there for years. It was a bad sign. If Z-Gallerie goes under, I will....!!!

Thank your government for that, and free-trade agreements they signed. They sold you off for a penny, really to cheap labor from India and trinket production from China that replaced local ones. China is still doing well.

The US government began prostituting chinese goods instead of national goods in full steam in mid 1990's. While Chinas export numbers are the second highest in the world, their imports are half of the U.S.
The rapid climb in China's economy while the US economy started waning was particularly prominent during G W Bush's era:
File:Prc1952-2005gdp.gif - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"

Yup, from what I came across you can thank Bill Clinton for this; but mind you, all presidents take orders from the higher ups.

As far as China I think they will be the new economic superpower of the future.. It's just basic logic, they make all the things we buy and btw some of those products are really good like their cars and electronics.

As a matter of fact, I was watching a documentary about how they are rebuilding there infrastructure and how they are importing magnetic powered trains built by Germany in hopes of doing away with the outdated rail trains and reducing cars on the road..

[brianguy]

Originally Posted by antibes

Don't believe the banks are the main cause for this whole mess. Its three things: 1) Free trade agreement, 2) outsourcing, 3) too much monies poured into the Iraq war, 4) banks

1) bad lending 2)bad lending 3)bad lending 4)bad lending (ok I'll give you that one)

[brianguy]

Originally Posted by antibes

IKEA hires a lot of labor from prisons and from reform programs. Its good; gives them a chance for vocational training, and some small income while they do their time.
No 'made in china' by IKEA. \
.
Some of their things, the slightly more expensive ones, actually last as good as any other brand. Its the cheapest ones that have a 1-2 year life span.

a bunch of their particle board furniture is stamped Made In China. I started noticing it in the past couple of years and started shopping there less and less, accordingly. two reasons, I wanted something that lasted not just which cost $39 and I could throw out in a year or two when it started to fall apart or look shabby. and #2 I didn't want chinese junk.

and their "slightly more expensive" you're referring to is 4-5x the price of their cheap furniture and the same price you can buy real non-particle board stuff for in other stores.

[Morphous01]

Originally Posted by brianguy

1) bad lending 2)bad lending 3)bad lending 4)bad lending (ok I'll give you that one)

And just who is responsible for allowing the bad lending? The Government, The Government, The Government, The Government...

[EscapeCalifornia]

Originally Posted by Morphous01

And just who is responsible for allowing the bad lending? The Government, The Government, The Government, The Government...

And who signed on the dotted line for mortgages they had no hope of paying for? The people, the people, the people. Plenty of blame to go around.

[Morphous01]

Originally Posted by EscapeCalifornia

And who signed on the dotted line for mortgages they had no hope of paying for? The people, the people, the people. Plenty of blame to go around.

I'm not replying just because I can or because I want to be right but because I want you people to understand the logic of all of this....





Lets use an analogy, if you have a 40 year old person and a 19 year old child and that 40 year old person offered that child cocaine and the child used it, well who's to blame? Well, obviously both are a fault for using a dangerous substance however more blame should be pointed at the 40 year old person because he/she had more knowledge, experience and also used his/her influence to corrupt a minor.



Well this is exactly what happened to the U.S housing market. The government sets the rules and regulations and they know full well what would have happened if they de regulated the housing laws that keep everybody safe; so they are the 40 year old person.



This hole Idea that its the peoples fault is just a media blitz to place blame on anybody else but the U.S Gov. This hole situation could have been avoided; had there been strict laws set up; people would not have been able to buy a house they could not afford..