How is the economy doing? (insurance, wholesale, contractor, debt)

[AngelWingDesigns]

This is interesting:

Foreclosure Rebound Pattern - Business Insider

So wither this “recovery?”
Foreclosure filings – default notices, scheduled auctions, and bank repossessions – suddenly jumped 8% to 124,419 in January across the nation, according to RealtyTrac.

[hiknapster]

In my part of Tennessee thinks are really picking up. Granted, we weren't really hit hard by the recession, anyway. However, I've seen more progress here than I have in the past nine years and that is saying something. I've been at my current job for two years and there was one office building here that's been empty the entire time. Now all of the offices are full.

[treasurekidd]

I believe the US economy is on a long, slow upward climb to recovery, in spite of everything Washington is doing to harm it. The US economy is extremely resilient, if we could just get Washington to practice a little financial sanity, I believe the US could enjoy a prolonged period of booming prosperity. Fat chance though.

[Listener2307]

How is the economy doing?

It's ending. The number of seniors is increasing, and will soon reach unprecedented numbers. Seniors have been decimated economically by the recessions, and they (we) are stingy by nature.
This will drive GDP down.
That will decrease revenue available to the government.
They will increase taxes.
That will make it worse.
Since America makes up 1/4 of the world's GDP, the effect will be worldwide.
And permanent.

There was never in history a time like 1900 when the ordinary man could go to work and expect to accomplish more and have more than his parents.
Those days are ending.
By 2050 history will return to where it always was; offspring will push with all their might, but will end up with the same standard of living as their parents.
Maybe.

It was really a great 150 years! But it's ending.

[Skydive Outlaw]

The economy is doing about as well as a castle made of sand.


The tide is coming in. . . . . .

[Kevroqs]

Originally Posted by MountainBiking

The unemployment rate is dropping because more and more people are not counted because they are giving up on looking. The methodology used to track unemployment needs to be changed to accurately count the actual number of unemployed Americans. The method currently used is merely an accounting trick.

-Cheers.

That's true because the unemployment rate is measured by the total amount of people applying for jobs.

[2nd trick op]

Originally Posted by sentry12

its not getting worse or improving, however the national debt is shooting UP. that will have its own consequences on economy later on (and it won't be positive).

I don't see that as the real problem; our economy is over-burdened, but the same is true of every other industrial nation, and the U S dollar is still the currency of choice for most international finance.

The only real problem is rooted in the fact that the present emerging generation, as well as the three which preceded it, reaped enormous benefit from a distortion in the balance of industrial power which began after World War II. But particularly within the last fifteen years, and under both major parties, that future was mortgaged by people who traded their franchise for supposed political advantage (a/k/a "crony capitalism"), by financially unseasoned newcomers who assumed unrealistic debt with "no skin in the game", by other neophytes who mortgaged their future in pursuit of credentials with neither challenge nor substance, and by the political and financial panderers who deceived them all.

That imbalance still has not been eliminated in certain key sectors, but the balloon continues to lose air; that trend, in turn, is a product of the free interaction of human commerce which, while it will naturally work to deflate any bogus sanctions or credentials and erode any artificial advantage, has also set many more nations on the road toward the prosperous economies and tested democracies which a small number of nations, all of them (until recently) Western and Judeo-Christian in character, have benefitted from for a century or more.

To cast these ideals aside and return to a milieu of protectionism and "economic tribalism" is an open invitation to return to the behaviors which made the Twentieth Century the bloodiest in history.

http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/

[mathjak107]

many of the unemployed left over today are really un-employable. they are a reflection of themselves and not the economy.

many we see come in:

can't pass a background check
can't pass a drug test
can't pass a credit check.

many can't get through a simple math test

others speak english so poorly you wonder if it was even a 2nd language

others dress like they are going to a gang fight.

we have not even gotten to their job skills yet


we had others come in for low level jobs tell us if we don't pay 20 bucks an hour they are not interested because they make more than that on employment and working off the books at the local deli.

[Pinkmani]

Originally Posted by MountainBiking

In my opinion I don't think the economy is doing as good as the financial press reports (e.g. CNBC)- but it's not diving either. To me the economy is moving sideways. Still too many job applications/resumes for the same job in just about every type of job. The unemployment rate is dropping because more and more people are not counted because they are giving up on looking. The methodology used to track unemployment needs to be changed to accurately count the actual number of unemployed Americans. The method currently used is merely an accounting trick.

-Cheers.

How do you that people have stopped looking for jobs?

[don1945]

I guess it depends on who you talk to. My barometer of the economy is how people are spending money on non essential items and luxuries. Where I live in Florida things, IMO, have gotten much better. I work in the marine industry and several years ago you couldn't give a boat away. Now, people are buying them again and spending lots of money on things to outfit them.

Another barometer for me is how much work I am getting. I work about 40 hours a week and my employer would give me more if it didn't take me into overtime.

Our roads are overloaded right now with out of State visitors (probably escaping that white stuff up north ) and you can't get into a restaurant without being put on a waiting list. A few years ago people were getting rid of things and today they are buying again, so that tells me consumer confidence is up.

So, my vote goes for "Yes" the economy is getting better.

Don