Rolling US Economy Into The Shitbin Thread

i guess i'll keep pretending i like my job

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

should just be in denial about the whole thing but it's hard. :-(

don't panic

There's always scrap metal theft to fall back on.

And the life of the roving vagabond is a bit unsung, I feel.

just interviewed w/ a place that takes incoming calls from bankrupt ppl who need attorneys

remember to take your last vacations for a decade this summer

IBM Offers to Send Laid-Off Staff to Other Countries
http://news.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/02/06/2010241

TheAmit writes to tell us that many recently laid off IBM employees have been offered jobs if they will only move somewhere it is cheap to employ them. IBM's new Project Match program offers some financial assistance for moving and immigration help for visas.

"However, the move has not gone well with the IBM staff union. Slamming the offer, a union spokesperson said that not only were jobs being shipped overseas, but Big Blue was trying to export the people for peanuts too. He added that at a time of rising unemployment IBM should be looking to keep both the work and the workers in the United States. "
Posted by ScuttleMonkey

Of course, IBM and many companies like them would remain profitable without doing this, just not as profitable as they would like.

I was reading the comments on the IBM piece at Slashdot and thinking "Is this place full of corporate apologists or something? WTF" and I got to this one and now it all makes sense:

by Daishiman (698845) on Friday February 06, @10:04PM (#26761227)

Honestly, having worked several years in outsourcing at IBM, our American customers were as full of shit as we were.
American IT workers have a sense of entitlement where they believe that the quality of their work is inherently superior simply because of their origin. Truth is, there's a lot of brilliant minds in the States, but like most places it is full of mediocre people.

i'm trying my best to stick fingers in my ears and sing ladeeda. instead my fingers keep going for my eyes.

(if you're squinting, the blue line is the 1990 recession, the red line is 2001, and the green line is the jobs already lost in the last 13 months.)

― paper plans (tipsy mothra), Saturday, February 7, 2009 12:13 AM (Yesterday) Bookmark

Incorrect, and misleading. The green line is the RATE of job losses per month. What the graph shows is that we are shedding jobs much faster than we did during the other recessions and that the rate is still accelerating.

Well that's not at all comforting. Thanks.

The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 381.99 points points, or 4.6 percent, to close at 7,888.88. The Dow had fallen as much as 420 points in the last half hour of trading.

The broader Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index fell 4.9 percent or 42.73 points, to 827.16, its worst performance since a broad sell-off on Inauguration Day.

Despite the size and scope of the Obama administration’s plans, investors said Mr. Geithner’s proposal raised more questions than it answered. The way out of the financial crisis, analysts said, looked as murky as ever.

“We’re not impressed, and I don’t think the market’s impressed either,” said Ryan Larson, head equity trader at Voyageur Asset Management. “It’s clear the administration is still trying to work on something concrete. I think the market sensed that, too.”

http://www.piney.com/MolechFlame.jpg

YES. THE MARKET SENSES IT.

(xp) No, I'm not going to waste bandwidth on why I'm disgusted w/ a protégé of Screaming Lobster of Bosnia's treasury secretary signing up. And I'm not commenting on Team Hope's results til the 100 days are up. Ta ta!

It's hard to spend wise and spend fast

I love days when wall street seems to operate like a bitchy little girl. I'd be buying stocks today if I had any money.

yeah, the market is a technical analyst's (i.e., a day trader's) wet dream and a fundamental analyst's worst nightmare.

to correct the above: the way the market has been BEHAVING lately is a technical analyst's ...

yeah not that I'm an expert / want anything to do with the stock market, but lately all of these "wall street is mad about something and gonna prove a point!!!" days always seem to lead to a "oh shit what did I do yesterday" bounce the next day.

I suppose I shouldn't be surprised but

http://www.dispatchpolitics.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2009/02/10/copy/caproos.html?adsec=politics&sid=101

Damned Austrians.

what the loyal opposition considers to be a response to a recent pro-stimulus AFSCME ad

we are gonna find out now what the effect of Bill Clinton shredding the safety net really is, right?

yep

but why bother with an ounce of prevention when you can lard on a few pounds of cure

Incorrect, and misleading. The green line is the RATE of job losses per month. What the graph shows is that we are shedding jobs much faster than we did during the other recessions and that the rate is still accelerating.

no, it's total job losses. the y-axis is job losses in thousands. what's somewhat misleading is that it's raw numbers instead of as a percentage of the workforce, which was smaller in 1990, and a bit smaller in 2001. something showing the rate would look really alarming, since something like half the total has been since october.

so anyway, how 'bout that geithner plan huh? my dad called me this morning yelling about what a bankers' tool geithner is...

and for the record, I am not tipsy's dad.

hahaha

http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/02/11/henrietta.hughes/index.html

Median housing prices in the Fort Myers metropolitan area have plummeted from $322,000 in December 2005 to less than $107,000 in December 2008, the Obama administration notes.

holy shit

yeah, holy shit is right

yeh, there was a news story in one of the seattle papers yesterday, about a real estate insider/agent who's apparently snagged a few ears by claiming that housing prices must have bottomed out locally, cuz stats show that when prices hit 20% below 2008 valuation, buyers sweep in and houses get snapped up. so, since there's a bargain-hunter contingent waiting for the magical 80% price point, seattle prices can't ever fall any lower than that. QED.

assumption that there will always be a supply of people waiting and able to buy at the same price point went unconsidered. some fucking crazy wishful thinking going on these days....

well, wishful thinking going on in places that aren't florida. right about now, i think everyone there pretty much knows how fucked they are

Is Maxine Waters retarded?

http://www.dispatchpolitics.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2009/02/10/copy/caproos.html?adsec=politics&sid=101

U.S. Rep. Steve Austria said he supports a scaled-down federal economic-stimulus proposal, but the Beavercreek Republican told The Dispatch editorial board that the huge influx of money into the economy could have a negative effect.

"When (President Franklin) Roosevelt did this, he put our country into a Great Depression," Austria said. "He tried to borrow and spend, he tried to use the Keynesian approach, and our country ended up in a Great Depression. That's just history."

Up Beavercreek without etc.

Between him and that 'war of northern aggression' guy in Missouri, it's been another great week for the GOP.

Steve Austria

and w/out America's Funniest Legislators gotcha gaffes, the uncomprehending Dems (xp)

I love the fact that Sports Illustrated swimsuit models rang the closing bell on Wall Street yesterday.

So Bar Rafael (?) was one of'em I assume or am I rong?

Do these people even know how to read?

Republicans, not swimsuit models.

The latter are probably more literate.

but Dems are better at covering their asses.

"When (President Franklin) Roosevelt did this, he put our country into a Great Depression," Austria said. "He tried to borrow and spend, he tried to use the Keynesian approach, and our country ended up in a Great Depression. That's just history."

http://www.hollywoodlostandfound.net/pictures/props/timemachine.jpg

That's just history.

it's just like the way will ferrell delivers "that's just science" in anchorman when he's just said that women's brains are smaller than men's.