How is the economy in your area?

[mramos1]

I am seeing a lot of moving sales on Craigslist here in my area. And few are buying off there.

The malls in some areas (West Palm) are almost empty, but in Boca they are packed. 35 minute drive and two different worlds.

Just wondering what others are seeing.

 

[audioguru]

In my part of Canada the economy is not too bad except many people working in car factories are laid-off, a major airline might cut half of its employees and a jet plane manufacturer cut many jobs.

Some of my stocks lost half their value but many did not lose anything.

 

[duffy]

The local yacht manufacturer shut down - 300 jobs lost. Local car dealer closed down.

 

[mramos1]

Audioguru,

Down here (Southeast Florida) we do not have auto industry, but Northern States do and hear they are getting the same deal as you guys.

Duffy, Down here they do (or did) buy a lot of yachts. The yacht show just ended, people where there, new never said if it was a good show or not. Gonna bet sales where way down.

All the moving sales here, this is not the place to be for sure. Builders stopped building (residential and commercial) months ago. We do have some employees on a 4 day work week.

 

[tcmtech]

My state has 630 thousand people and $1.3 billion Cash surplus in the bank!
We are looked at as a bunch of back woods nobodies with little eduction by the rest of the country too!
Strange how we got all the money and have a fast growning economy while the rest of the country is over ther heads in debt and crashing to the ground.

Perhaps us uneducated nobodies know something the rest of the country doesnt?
Like how to elect good government officials and how to properly manage our check books!

Well back to my job. I may have to put in over 50 hours this month to meet my living exspences. bummer.

 

[duffy]

$1.3 billion Cash surplus? Dang. I'm going to go over there and introduce you guys to flush toilets and make a FORTUNE!

 

[tcmtech]

Sorry we already got toilets! They are the old high volume high flow ones that can still swallow the biggest nastiest high fiber turd you could ever make!

My state is farming and energy production based for our primary state income. We were eco freindly and alternative energy users before it was even popular!

But seriously we do need more skilled workers! Their is alot of good paying jobs open here. Plus our cost of living is almost 1/3 to 1/2 of what the rest of the country is!

 

[HiTech]

Restaurants are a good gauge for tough economic times. It's been studied and confirmed that most people will cut back spending in many areas, but they still keep cash in the cookie jar to dine out. Restaurants will experience a slow down but nothing like specialty merchants do.

 

[dknguyen]

Yup. I find I'm eating out with friends more now because everything else is too expensive to do!

 

[mramos1]

I never spend a lot myself and will not until the kids are gone (13 is the youngest so not looking at the DSS anytime soon). It is all about the kids right now.

But when they leave, the toys are all mine (OK wife toys then mine).

One problem in this area is no one can sell their house, so a foreclosure is how most people leave. I drive around on the weekends and see a large number of for sale signs. But the houses here are so inflated and the banks are not lending.

 

[duffy]

Eating out? I thought people cut back on restaurants and started buying more frozen pizzas?
Frozen pizza sales near $1.3 billion, as category is among retail's top ten. - Free Online Library

 

[Sceadwian]

Not much cheaper nowdays.

 

[HarveyH42]

My state has 630 thousand people and $1.3 billion Cash surplus in the bank!
We are looked at as a bunch of back woods nobodies with little eduction by the rest of the country too!
Strange how we got all the money and have a fast growning economy while the rest of the country is over ther heads in debt and crashing to the ground.

Perhaps us uneducated nobodies know something the rest of the country doesnt?
Like how to elect good government officials and how to properly manage our check books!

Well back to my job. I may have to put in over 50 hours this month to meet my living exspences. bummer.

Isn't North Dakota, one of the few states that didn't put a cap on credit card interest rates? And so North Dakota Banks can screw over consumers pretty good? Got a hunch the folk over in Delaware are also doing quite well.

Banks + Credit Cards + Bailout Money= Good Economy

 

[mramos1]

Eating out? I thought people cut back on restaurants and started buying more frozen pizzas?
Frozen pizza sales near $1.3 billion, as category is among retail's top ten. - Free Online Library

We had frozen pizza for the last two days from the same two pizzas (so technically that is 1/2 the price; feeding more than two people also). Not sure what was paid for them.

But it was not bad and I can tell you I do not want that again tomorrow. We do it once a week. It was Pizza Hut before things became tight here.

 

[Mikebits]

My 26yr old son said to me today, you know times are getting bad when you see hot chicks working at the fast food joints.

 

[tcmtech]

Isn't North Dakota, one of the few states that didn't put a cap on credit card interest rates? And so North Dakota Banks can screw over consumers pretty good? Got a hunch the folk over in Delaware are also doing quite well.

No point in putting a cap on an industry that is not based in our state. We locals know how to manage money. The credit card companies dont make much off us because we tend to pay off the card before the ballance is due!
Pay right away and they get no interest!
Actualy Wyoming is the only other state with a budget surplus. They too are also high product exporters with a smaller size population that also has good finacial managenent and government people.

Think that knowing how to manage money and having good governemt officials is maybe why us two "hill billy hick" states are still doing so well?

All other 48 states are in heavy debt. And no we won't loan you any money we know you will never pay it back! We learned that years ago.

 

[Mikebits]

I would be interested to see how much tax dollar the state of ND contributes to the federal pot. I recall reading Ca, is one of the largest contributors. But don't worry, we got your back.

Pretty nice Interstates there in ND? Your welcome ...

 

[tcmtech]

Your the ones paying for out interstates! WOW! Why dont you buy us some that last!

I know everybody likes to tease North Dakota and thats Okay with us.

Get too high and mighty and we can shut off the power and stop sending everybody our food crops we raise!
Oh! And there is that having the majority of the united states Nuclear missles in our back yard too. And wait! Did I mention that we have two air bases loaded with big nuclear capable bombers?

Plus there is that giant oil field and several oil refineries we have too.

What was it we needed everyone else for? I cant really put a finger on it myself.

Dispite our state only 630 thousand people, I bet we could still take over the world if we wanted too!
Good thing we have a great sense of humor!

 

[SPDCHK]

There's the saying, if America sneezes, the rest of the world gets the flu.

Now that America has the flu, the rest of the world in lying in intensive care.

I worked for a company who's sole client was Anglo Platinum. The world's largest producer of platinum. You all know what's happening to the auto industry, with result, the request for platinum has dropped. Platinum price dropped from over $2200 down to about $750. (Currently around $1100)

The Nett result of the platinum request decline is that Anglo in total is going to get rid of 25000 people. Our company had to close completely.

As for the rest of South Africa, companies are letting people go left-right-and-centre. All use the excuse "Economic crisis"

The Soccer world cup is to be held in South Africa next year (430 days to go). Will the rest of the world have enough spending money to come and watch?

 

[duffy]

Get too high and mighty and we can shut off the power

Oh YEAH? Well, WE'LL cut off the CHEESE SUPPLY! HA! You guys would be so screwed.