How is the economy in your area?

[tcmtech]

Um... We got dairy cattle and cheese too!
I just didnt think it was worth mentioning. My bad.

But thanks for playing!

 

[HiTech]

edited for accuracy:

My state has 630 thousand people, (most of whom are single and rarely date the opposite sex), and $1.3 billion Cash surplus in the bank!
Strange but true, we are looked at as a bunch of back woods nobodies with little eduction (??) by the rest of the country too! As is evident from this post, we have poor grammar and can't spell as well.
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 mash corn, spread manure, change a tractor tire, square dancing, and plink at tin cans from 25 yds. Like how to elect good government officials and how to properly manage our check books! By not dating, we save lots of money... not too many jewelry stores, fine restaurants, museums, and theaters in my state. My state has the lowest sex crimes in the country. Barely an individual is registered under the Megan's Law act. However we do have the Bessie and Viola Law that requires convicted criminals of beastiality, to register their address when living within 10 miles of a farm.

Well back to my job. I may have to put in over 50 hours this month to meet my living exspences. bummer. But heck, I get to spend my lunch hours reading books on dating women and developing social skills.

 

[Mikebits]

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!

This is turning into a pissing contest, but I love an argument

Ca is pretty much the third or fourth ranked crop producer in the US. I did not even see ND mentioned in this crop report. Oh wait, they are mentioned for barley and wheat, something like 49th.

https://www.electro-tech-online.com/custompdfs/2009/04/CropProdSu-01-12-2009.pdf

Keep in mind, I am keeping a friendly just a fun squabble amongst state pride

Lets stay friendly....

 

[Bob Scott]

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.

Aren't all the US VISA and MASTERCARD incorporated in Delaware? ...and it's because all the other states have laws against loan-shark interest rates. IIRC, Delaware is the incorporation state for shady businesses.

I like North Dakota. (I bought our fist microwave oven, an geniune Amana Radarange in Fargo in 1978. It works like new and is still in use several times a day.) I have found that most Americans are fine people, just like neighbours except for a couple of points:

1) They like stars and stripes a whole lot, like they have a passion for it or something.
2) They are mortgaged up to the hilt because mortgage interest is tax deductible. That's a dangerous practise in this economy.

Reaganomics trickle down theory in a nutshell:
Rich people get tax breaks.
Rich people buy yaughts with their refunds.
Poor people earn their "trickle down" by scraping barnacles off the yaughts.

 

[tcmtech]

Is this jelously or hostility I am feeling! Either way it was still fun.
HiTech yours was the best! You had to put some good thought into it. Even I found it funny! And yes my spelling is poor, I know that. But far from the worst on this site!

And regional and local cultural differences can make one persons sentence structure seem odd if you are not familiar with the local speech and dialect patterns.
American grammer structure is not 100% univeral!

Although you got the farm animal part wrong. Thats Montana not North Dakota your thinking of!
All in all I love my state and what the people stand for. I wish more people in this country felt the same about theirs.
Thanks for the giggles! I hope you got some out of this too!

But seriously if you ever pull that attitiude while your visiting, you have had your warning!

 

[gramo]

Here in Auz, anything in the export business has felt the pressure good and proper. Thousands of jobs are getting laid off in the mining industry, and inland towns are getting rather quite around some parts

Holden (Aussie car company) have just halved the salaries of all their employees to retain them. They would rather their employees do it tough compared to loosing the skill sets.

That's just a couple of stories, thousands of others just as most of the world

On a good note: I think every tax payer gets a $1000 allowance put in their accounts this week, should help a few strugglers out

 

[gabeNC]

Charlotte NC is shedding jobs like crazy. Foreclosures are up, banks are letting people go in droves. I think unemployed is close to 11%. BofA is talking (more) outsourcing, Wachovia got bought by Wells Fargo and is axing people. Nascar teams are shutting down and losing sponsorship. Is it just me or is economics like the tide? Every now and then it pulls back and you have all the dead crap laying around.

 

[HiTech]

Although you got the farm animal part wrong. Thats Montana not North Dakota your thinking of!

....... But seriously if you ever pull that attitiude while your visiting, you have had your warning!

Montana? That state has far more big game wildlife than farm animals. The cows and sheep are safe for the most part. As for the attitude, I don't have an attitude against ND, here in Pa. we have our share of inbreds too. So far though the state is doing ok since no one has raped the horses and rode off on the women!

 

[Andy1845c]

Here in southern Minnesota the local paper keeps saying how out local economy is fairing better then the average.

I personally don't see any evidence of that.

Houses are not selling. Several around my business here have been for sale for over a year. This is a nice neighborhood too.

I own a small cutting tool service shop. I service tools that contactors and factorys use. I was actually fairly busy last spring. Its been very slow for a few months now.

My wife lost her job in January. She worked for the largest employer in town. Several hundred others at that company also were laid off over a few month span. She has had zero luck finding a job and is going back to school at the moment to get certified to work in a nursing home. Most all other majoy employers in the area have had massive layoffs, pay cuts and or reduced hours.

The local hospital just laid off 100 employees. Mostly nurses.

So, i guess it could be alot worse, but I honestly don't see any signs here that things are turning around yet.

Not much I can do but wait and see.

 

[gerty]

Middle Tennessee is slow also. I worked for Carrier Air Conditioning for 27 years, they closed the plant down 3 years ago. I now teach electronics and have to place my graduates, and that's getting harder every trimester.
Volkswagen is building a new plant about 60 miles away but it won't open for 2 years or so.Another company is building a solar panel manufacturing plant about 45 miles away, no word on how long before they open.
I'm also situated between 2 Nissan plants, one builds the cars, the other builds the motors. I have students that went on to both facilities. I also have 2 students that took the early buyout package that Nissan offered to their 'senior' employees.
When Carrier left there were nearly 1400 employees, that plus the smaller contractors that supported them. Including: crating materials, trucking, warehousing,insulation supplier, and
A.O Smith, formerly Magnetec mototrs, all went under within a year. Not sure how many people involved with all of them.

edit: nothing to do with Carrier, but we also lost Levi Jeans, Powermatic Foundry and power tools, Dezurich Valves, Formfit Rogers (ladies garments), Aquatech (stonewash jeans), a company (name??) that made door and dash panels for Nissan.
Probably total about 5,000 jobs total.

 

[mramos1]

Sounds like all that commented are all feeling what we are here in Florida and it is all over the US and in some of Australia. I bet other parts of the world that have not chimed in (everywhere but N.D. that is ).

I was just curious, I thought it might be all over and not just here.

Thanks for all the input and any other posts are welcome.

I just see all the positive TV press on the stock market and the President. Then I see all the sign in front of the houses. But I think it is all fluff myself and we are in a mess.

And guys, thanks for the laughs, you to tcmtech for let them rough you up. I am still laughing about Betsy and Viola. Bad Hitech.

 

[Andy1845c]

I bet other parts of the world that have not chimed in (everywhere but N.D. that is ).

I am surprised no UK members have chimed it. From Talking to Eric in the chat room, it sounds like that part of the world is having the same issues America has. Its really not a pretty picture. Not really anyplace you can run to get away from it!

I just see all the positive TV press on the stock market and the President. Then I see all the sign in front of the houses. But I think it is all fluff myself and we are in a mess.

The media is a funny beast. For a while it was all hype, doom and gloom about the stock market and job losses. Anything to shock and upset people. And for a while there was only good things said about our new president.

Now I see mixed stories about the economy. One minutes I am reading that some think its bottomed out and will get better by the end of the year, and the next minute I read how signs point to things getting worse and more job will be cut. I really don't know what to think anymore. I have also noticed that President Obama is catching more and more critisim. For a while it seemed like the media put him on a pedestal and he could do no wrong, and people thought he was the answer to all these problems. Now it looks like people are starting to realize he is just another politician.

 

[HiTech]

And guys, thanks for the laughs, you to tcmtech for let them rough you up. I am still laughing about Betsy and Viola. Bad HiTech.

Hey, what can I say other than it's a sick world and I'm a happy man!

 

[Mike_2545]

Well the economy in Northwest Ohio has ties with the automotive industry, so you can guess how that is going.
Me personally, lost 1/3 of my investments/401K/IRA's. I now refer to them as .401k Ha, Ha. I wasn't going to retire for another 20 years anyway. Back to the grindstone.

 

[kchriste]

Not too bad in this part of the world. House prices have dropped by apx %10, but they are still pretty high here. This is a bit of a tourist/government job town but it has diversified over the years, so it is relatively stable with unemployment in the low single digit range . It seems that it is the one industry type towns that tend to get hit the hardest when the one and only large employer goes bust.

 

[mramos1]

I really don't know what to think anymore. I have also noticed that President Obama is catching more and more critisim. For a while it seemed like the media put him on a pedestal and he could do no wrong, and people thought he was the answer to all these problems. Now it looks like people are starting to realize he is just another politician.

Yea, I never thought he would be more than that, but it's sad others did for their reasons. History, change, a soap opera looking guy/family, etc. Sounds like the Clinton's again and same cabinet. Not sure that second best would have made a change either. We need a businessman to run this place, not a politician.

Well I guess we see what happens in the US for now.

HiTech's avatar now scares me.

Mike2545, new math for retirement (401K amount)/.401.

 

[Mike_2545]

Mike2545, new math for retirement (401K amount)/.401.

That's about right.

 

[audioguru]

I noticed that Obama had an earphone. Not a hearing aid, it was part of a radio receiver.

I don't think he is listening to music. I think he is a puppet who says what the guys in the back room tell him to say.

 

[SPDCHK]

I noticed that Obama had an earphone. Not a hearing aid, it was part of a radio receiver.

I don't think he is listening to music. I think he is a puppet who says what the guys in the back room tell him to say.

And have you ever noticed that there’s always two to three TELE-PROMPTERS on the stage in front of him. No matter where he looks into the crowd, he can always read if the radio feed should fail. (Observation made by my brother living in Florida USA)

As for our black president, well, what can I say? (I now refer to Jacob Zuma)

 

[tcmtech]

At least he listens to the voice in the ear piece! Bush just thought it was god telling him what to do and say.
Some days I think bush had some college age interns giving him the audio prompts, And they were punking him some times too! Just to see if he would actualy repeat what they said to him.
What do you think? AM I very far off on that assumption?