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If you did not watch the news would you notice this terrible economy in your day to day life?
Yes, there are a numerous signs that things are going wrong around here. For example one of the malls that use to have no vacant stores now has many stores that are empty. They try to hide it by building a fake facade in front of the store.
But these sort of antidotes are pretty useless. Perhaps the restaurant you go to is one of the best in town? Perhaps in my example the owner raised rents and is driving away stores? Perhaps, people are going to mall just to get out of the house and not purchase junk?
I don't need the media to tell me how bad the economy is.
All I have to do is buy gas or go to the store or look at all the houses with for sale signs in the yard.
Last night on the local news (Columbus, OH) they were talking about record high unemployment numbers in Franklin County - a level not seen since the 70's. I personally do not know of anyone that is out of a job - here. My neighborhood and surrounding community seem to be doing okay - were all scaling back and even talking about it - but everyone I know here seems to be level headed and has a plan.
The stores and resturants seem to be doing fine. Was at a high end retail area and they are opening a Tiffany store - go figure.
Ironically, being from the South, I know many back there that have lost there jobs. A friend that works for a bank in Charlotte is just waiting for his pink slip, so to speak. He says many in the banking industry do not feel safe. In talking about foreclosures, people seem to be noticing and knowing many having issues down South.
The media does throw fuel to the fire - as they do in ALL situations.
Last edited by GeminiGal; 08-20-2008 at 06:28 AM..
Reason: spelling
I don't need the media to tell me how bad the economy is.
All I have to do is buy gas or go to the store or look at all the houses with for sale signs in the yard.
I noticed it takes me less than 30 mins to go to work, where 6 mths ago it would take me an hour, and we're talking about downtown LA. I then switch to taking public transportation, and the #s of people don't increase. I'd say it's b/c a lot of people are unemployed... How can anyone not notice this?
-I was in line at Washinton Mutual for 15 min while waiting for people to make deposits (yes, they were deposits...cash/check on hand)
-house prices fell a whopping 3% where I am
-every cart in line at walmart was filled to the top
-gas guzzling SUVs were dominating the local Costco gas station
-the malls were full of people shopping
-"foreclosed" homes were all decrepit ones....homes most people wouldn't buy
-people were still making mortgage payments.
in my opinion,
yes, it is tough right now.....but no where near what the media makes it out to be
I think that, just like real estate. it's local. I notice you are in LA, CA. I'm sure there are zip codes even there that are doing well.
Take MI, for example. Anything that is close to Detroit has been hit hard. Some suburbs are doing okay but the majority of that MSA is tanking.
Just like Ohio. Listen to the national media, and OH as a whole is the pits. However, here in central OH (Columbus) things seems to be much better that the rest of OH. Columbus has the advantage of having the state government jobs, and lots of white collar - partly because they are not heavy auto industry or considered rust belt. A major university (OSU) helps as well. Not to say that Columbus isn't recession proof, but RE never boomed here and the growth seems to be smart & steady.
Personally, I hope that many who are in financial trouble will use this as a wake up call and get their act together. Unfortunately what I hope for and what will happen are two totally different scenarios. I don't have much faith in the vast majority of Americans that have screwed up to turn things around.
In answer the OP....YES
My budget doesn't stretch as far neither at home nor at work.
All the local govt's are suffering and will continue to suffer. We had a heck of a time presenting a balanced budget to the council last week. And every other finance director I know in the Metroplex (Dallas area) had the same problem.
When I attended a national conference for budgeting almost every class that had to do with budgeting in these hard times was standing room only!
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