it'll get worse
2008-Nov-20, Thursday 11:15 amI, of course, am expecting "The Crash" to happen. :) Other people probably aren't so pessimistic, but I don't see how anyone can think we've reached bottom yet.
At Bear Coffee last night, one local said that he hasn't made any payments on his house since January. He's expecting the local sheriff department to come by any day now to evict him. His parents (I'm not sure what happened to their house) had moved in with him too so they're all going to be moving on to other things soon. The personal home meltdown isn't over yet.
I've read one livejournal entry (where posts on the matter are Friends-locked for obvious reasons) that a county in a metropolitan area of the US has announced layoffs after they determined that 50% of all commercial property in the county was in technical default. Since the county couldn't expect tax revenues from these businesses in 2009, the county needed to lay off its workforce now. I heard a story on National Public Radio this week about the likelihood of a business property meltdown appearing very soon now.
Jobless claims are now at a 16-year high. I think these figures come from money being paid out for unemployment. If so, they are underreported. Some people have been unemployed so long that they are no longer receiving money. My roommate, on the other hand, got a severance package of a few months' pay when he was laid off. Minnesota will not pay him unemployment compensation until that same number of months has passed. So he's probably a "future unemployed" statistic that hasn't been counted yet.
I went yesterday to the website where I found my tech job. I used to have to scroll through lots of listing back when I was visiting during December-February last winter. Yesterday there were 3 jobs. That's all. Sure, it's a website devoted specifically to job postings by non-profit organizations, but it's a good sign of what businesses (that depend on handouts/donations) are expecting from next fiscal year.
Even back in September, tent cities were already springing up around the country. I haven't seen any locally, but it's probably because the winters get bitterly cold here so the homeless migrate south to warmer climates.
http://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/wayoflife/09/19/tent.cities.ap/index.html
It'll get a lot worse, folks.
Worst. President. Ever. (Vote Quimby!)
At Bear Coffee last night, one local said that he hasn't made any payments on his house since January. He's expecting the local sheriff department to come by any day now to evict him. His parents (I'm not sure what happened to their house) had moved in with him too so they're all going to be moving on to other things soon. The personal home meltdown isn't over yet.
I've read one livejournal entry (where posts on the matter are Friends-locked for obvious reasons) that a county in a metropolitan area of the US has announced layoffs after they determined that 50% of all commercial property in the county was in technical default. Since the county couldn't expect tax revenues from these businesses in 2009, the county needed to lay off its workforce now. I heard a story on National Public Radio this week about the likelihood of a business property meltdown appearing very soon now.
Jobless claims are now at a 16-year high. I think these figures come from money being paid out for unemployment. If so, they are underreported. Some people have been unemployed so long that they are no longer receiving money. My roommate, on the other hand, got a severance package of a few months' pay when he was laid off. Minnesota will not pay him unemployment compensation until that same number of months has passed. So he's probably a "future unemployed" statistic that hasn't been counted yet.
I went yesterday to the website where I found my tech job. I used to have to scroll through lots of listing back when I was visiting during December-February last winter. Yesterday there were 3 jobs. That's all. Sure, it's a website devoted specifically to job postings by non-profit organizations, but it's a good sign of what businesses (that depend on handouts/donations) are expecting from next fiscal year.
Even back in September, tent cities were already springing up around the country. I haven't seen any locally, but it's probably because the winters get bitterly cold here so the homeless migrate south to warmer climates.
http://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/wayoflife/09/19/tent.cities.ap/index.html
It'll get a lot worse, folks.
Worst. President. Ever. (Vote Quimby!)