Economy improving?

[cgallery]

Poolhound's thread looking for leads for work in Chicago (for this daughter) got me to thinking.

"They" say the economy is showing signs of improvement.

I know that jobs are supposedly a lagging indicator.

But, is the economy improving, worsening, or moving sideways?

[billwmeyer]

I think it is improving, but it is going to be a long road with a lot of ups and downs. With that said, If jobs do not come around soon, it could get very bad.

Bill

[dbhost]

Well "They" said the same thing in 1929 too...

I can't go into the forces pushing this as it will get VERY political very quickly. But I feel we are looking at the tip of a very large iceberg due to choices that have been made, and are being made by the powers that be...

[Shep]

I happened to study economics in college and the current economic indicators push me to say that the economy will continue to deteriorate as inflation rises.

[cabinetman]

Construction trades are still slow in this area, but there are signs of slow improvement, which IMO, is better than no improvement.
.

[pelligrini]

There is a small improvement at our architectural office, but it is still really slow. I've got a feeling it will be slow for some time to come. We're not bleeding money like we were a year ago. We also cut half our staff and the few that are left are at 80% pay. Just looked at the year to date balance sheet last week; we made almost $500 profit. Which is better than loosing 10s of thousands.

[sparkeyjames]

The commercial real estate market crash is still coming up. Lets see what players take the chapter 7 bankruptcies when that happens.

That said the business that provides my employment, commercial printing, has seen a huge fall off. I'm down to 32 hours per week and I'm lucky if my check clears the bank. Case in point we used to do a lot of business for an ad agency we have not had them send us a job in over 6 months and they cut their staff down to 5 people where there used to be 20. If it were not for a local University that gives us just about all of their printing work I think we would be done for. Business's are asking for 30, 45 and sometimes 60 days to pay. Some are flat out telling us they will not pay for 60 days. Screwed if you do screwed if you don't. (filter caught the D word). The bad part is is if you want the business you cannot say no. The only upside is is that I get to either sleep in an extra hour every day or get up and surf the net for an hour before I go to work. I hope you guys don't mind me doing a plug for our business. We do lots of business cards (your design) full color 1000 for $30 plus shipping. Visit our website at http://www.dxp247.com.

[tommyt654]

Must be improving as all the large corporations are getting greedier and jacking up prices again,ie,..oil,banks,telecommunications firms,food stores, etc,etc,etc. They will drive us all back into the poorhouse again with good ole american greed.

[Ed62]

I picked moving sideways, will be for a long time. But I think the worst is over. Still a lot of bumps in the road, but things will get better. My glass is half full.

Ed

[Hoover]

I have a degree in business economics, B.S. 1969. The economy is moving sideways, the stimulus package has not yet released all its funds, but roadway repairs are picking up, and business construction has started to turn upward in the Puget Sound area. The job hiring is lagging, and probably be slower to get better until housing market gets rid of excess inventory. It will be a hard winter.

[Richard in Smithville]

I think we are slowely improving but with a lot of sideways motion. I work in a steel offshoot industry and our "trough's" are getting lesser and the peaks are getting longer and stonger.

[vaking]

Heavy government intervention succeeded at stopping further decline of the economy; economy had been stabilized. Unfortunately government intervention came at a cost - a lot of new money had been pumped into economy. The new money came from 2 sources - some money government borrowed and some it simply printed. Borrowed money added to our debt, printed money will cause inflation. During the recession there is no concern about inflation - companies would not raise prices when lots of people are out of work and cannot afford even current level of spending. Raising prices at such moment would cause products to sit unsold. But the moment economy starts picking up prices will go up because of inflation - that's what Tommyt noticed. This inflation is beginning to show up now and it will make recovery from the recession painfully slow. So the economy is improving but at a rate comparable to raising water level in oceans because of global warming.

[germdoc]

I have a degree in business economics, B.S. 1969. The economy is moving sideways, the stimulus package has not yet released all its funds, but roadway repairs are picking up, and business construction has started to turn upward in the Puget Sound area. The job hiring is lagging, and probably be slower to get better until housing market gets rid of excess inventory. It will be a hard winter.

Interesting that the degree given in economics is a "BS"...

Things around here are picking up a little, about as many hirings as layoffs. A LOT of road construction between here and Chicago and here and Minneapolis, so some people have jobs!

[jackellis]

I read a lot of economic and financial news and the indicators seem to be headed up, if slowly. I just returned from a trip to Florida and three of the four flights (Reno-Chicago, Chicago-Ft. Lauderdale, Ft. Lauderdale-Las Vegas) were full.

We had ten years of abnormally fast growth fueled by cheap money. Now we have to grit our teeth and wait while conditions revert to the mean.

At least this wasn't a repeat of 1929.

[cwithboat]

After a severe dip last year my 401k has substantially improved, making me a little less edgy about spending money. If others (retired and living on SS with occasional dips into savings) are seeing the same thing, then improvement is here or near.