[Eli]

Na it is not that it is the concentration of wealth.


New York, especially Manhattan has become Disneyland for rich people it always but is more so now then ever. The mass of wealth has long been flowing into the major Cities. New York is booming because all the stock brokers and hedge fund managers have been making a fortune off of deals that were too good to be true.

[NotMyBlood]

sorry to get off topic - maybe this should go in another thread? But, since this is the latest bubble to pop, tech being the last, where is the next bubble going to start? Where will the flock go?

or is this it?

[Eli]

Good question I would start another thread though.

[NotMyBlood]

will do. disregard..

[gampy]

Reporting from south-eastern Ontario, Canada:

Actually, things seem to be pretty swell here, all things considered. The housing market here is doing well. A neighbour's house just sold after one open house, for pretty much what she was asking (she turned a tidy profit). The housing market in this part of Canada is doing well, no major bubbles, though. More steady as she goes.

Not too many problems with the economy here, but then again, Canada does not have a sub-prime lending industry here.

Have not seen more than the usual for lease signs, or for sale signs.

The tourism is a little slower than normal due to the high Canadian dollar, but I have not heard of too many problems concerning the service sector, tourism, or hospitality.

I wonder if the problems you are talking about will find their way up here in due time though.

The resource and commodity sectors will certainly suffer up here due to the high dollar and reduced demand for our products south of the border, so I don't think our good times will last too much longer, unless there is some kind of rebound in the States.

[savethehumans]

Many spooky things in my area.

It's a college town. College students are the key to retail economy. Yet a gym right off campus recently moved miles away to a developing housing/business complex off the interstate. Students were key business. Some will probably DRIVE out there to continue their workouts. But one suspects they are hoping for new clientele from the rich folk who can afford houses in the development, and the office folk who work in the business park. Or maybe from patrons who just wanna work off the popcorn, candy, and soda they consumed in the 16-screen movie theatre there.

That's the most absurd one. We also have--er, HAD--a local video rental store with three locations in the city. In the last year, they've gone down to one.

The off-campus university bookstore location closed with the new year. Better have a parking permit, cuz the only location left is in the student union, and there ain't no free parking!

A 20-ounce soda at the warehouse grocery I shop at sold for 98 cents at the end of 2005. Now, it's $1.18. Whole fryer chickens used to go from $2.50 (on sale) to $4.50. Now, it's $3.50 (on sale) to over $6!! I've heard of the dairy prices going up, but I haven't dared look at the milk prices lately. The little pint bottles I get--for the boxed pasta mixes I cook--well, I won't say. It breaks my heart. 2-liter bottles of Coke could go on sale for 78 cents less than 2 years ago. Now, the big sale--10/$10 (i.e., a dollar a bottle) Even at the regular price of $1.28, a whole 2-liter can be bought for just 10 cents more than the 20-ounce bottle! Of course, the 20-ouncer IS chilled, if you just can't wait to guzzle it down.

And, of course, there's the "dollar" theatre in town that costs $2 for a ticket now--except on Tuesdays, when it's a bargain at $1.50! (Let's skip talking popcorn/drink prices.)

I've tried to mix luxuries with necessities in these examples. But either way, you get the picture.

Of course, there are still shining lights: the burger place that still sells burger/fries/drink baskets for $2.99; the pizza place where you can pick up a medium pizza for $6.99; the fact that there are THREE laundromats in a one-block area near campus--the third just opened NEXT DOOR to one of the other two--and all are doing a good business. Ya still gotta do your laundry (for now), and a lot more folks don't have washers and dryers than you might think! But none of this is gonna hold much longer. You can just SENSE that.

It's like a few years ago. I was sitting on my porch. In the distance, a black sky. I just watched it come closer and closer, not moving inside till the skies above me were like night, and the rain started to fall. It's coming. . .it's coming. . .and there's something fascinating in watching it move ever closer to you. Even though you know you're dead meat when it gets here. . . .

[Iaato]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('savethehumans', 'I')t's like a few years ago. I was sitting on my porch. In the distance, a black sky. I just watched it come closer and closer, not moving inside till the skies above me were like night, and the rain started to fall. It's coming. . .it's coming. . .and there's something fascinating in watching it move ever closer to you. Even though you know you're dead meat when it gets here. . . .

[jesus_of_suburbia_old]

Well, the grocery store I work at is doing so well that it is buying out the space occupied by a jewelery store and expanding.

At both hospitals I've done clincals at, everyone is tired and overworked. No surprise there, I guess.

[Chesire]

Hmm come to think of it I haven't gotten a phone call from a temp agency in months. I needed a second job a few years ago and as part of my plan I signed up at every Temp agency around here about 20 or so. I have worked numerous short time jobs for many of them that fit in my schedule in the past. Always showed up , never called in got numerous offers of employment from businesses. To sum up I got on average 2 or more calls a month for about 4 years . Reading this post made me realize the last time I got a call was in February.

[vision-master]

Things are doing really well around here.

[midnight-gamer]

Over the last few years I have noted a number of bank robberies has increased markedly in my neck of the woods. Now, others may well be accustomed to such things, but New Hampshire had been such a nice place to live. Here is a recent article.

http://www.fosters.com/apps/pbcs.dll/ar ... /108010327

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'U')sing a bicycle to get away, a man robbed TD Banknorth on Central Street Tuesday afternoon and police have issued an arrest warrant for him.

[NotMyBlood]

Think about how many bridges and overpasses the Untited States has built and continue to Build. Did you catch how much its going to cost just to get traffic moving again? This is one bridge in Minnesota.

The deaths and injured are tragic. My prayers are with them.

[Benzin]

From what I've seen around my area is this: I took a drive into a neighboring state and the place was empty! (OH, btw) I think everyone was over in PA. Which makes sense because all that drives around here are cars with OH registration tags. Lots of stores very vacant and many plants were closed. Everything looked dirty and deteriorating; it truly is the rust belt

Around my 'hood, which used to be a huge manufacturing center, most lay vacant and the remaining shops have been replaced with poor paying plastics jobs. What has replaced all these jobs are mass amounts of retail stores and restaurants. It has switched over to a mostly tourist economy. The local city government just spent millions on a new convention center and now no one is sure if anyone will use it. The most common jobs around here are for sales and customer service. Anyone with decent job is clinging to them for dear life because its so hard to get one.

Me personally, I have a BA degree and I just finished LE training for my state and I'm still stuck at home, in my same town and poorer than I was 6 months ago with no job. I have had other jobs in the past but nothing worth anything. And to think I worked below minimum wage (at the time MW was 5.25 as opposed to 7.25 now).

[Twilight]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Jack', 'H')ow's this for a sign:

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'G')M and Ford posted double-digit declines in vehicle sales for July as the housing slump and high gas prices hurt demand. Toyota's U.S. sales also slid, but the Japanese car maker outsold Ford. Chrysler's fell 8.4%. 5:01 p.m.

[Grifter]

anecdote?

The recruitment industry is booming in the uk. Never seen so many people paid last week in the 10 years I've known it.

We don't even have to try.

Peak recruitment?

[Twilight]

Europe is just lagging the US by a few years. We are going down a similar road, just feeling smug that it is all "in moderation" while we gradually accumulate the same dose of excess. Here in the UK we have average house prices at 7x average salary and rising, buy-to-let investment (on credit taken out at low rates), people buying plasma screens, SUVs hitting the roads, food inflating at 15%, gargantuan misallocation of capital investment (unless your real goal is to employ the largest possible labour force during construction as a public-private works scheme rather than acquire and make eventual use of the fixed asset), and to make matters worse, a large chunk of the last is American-style greenfield suburbia.

It's the same damn cliff, the Americans will drop off it sometime between Q3 this year and 2009, but if they pause to turn around and look back, they can wave to us as we keep pace 5 years behind them.

(Waves)

Hi guys!

We can't maintain this. The only way we even got this far after we shut down our manufacturing industry is setting ourselves up as the world's broker so we make money off every trade whichever way it goes. That's not an occupation with long-term prospects.

[Iaato]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Twilight', 'W')hat's interesting about the detail in those numbers is the top-end stuff is still selling. The rot is spreading up the pyramid, but hasn't hammered the middle class properly yet.

[NotMyBlood]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Iaato', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Twilight', 'W')hat's interesting about the detail in those numbers is the top-end stuff is still selling. The rot is spreading up the pyramid, but hasn't hammered the middle class properly yet.

[Don35]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('NotMyBlood', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Iaato', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Twilight', 'W')hat's interesting about the detail in those numbers is the top-end stuff is still selling. The rot is spreading up the pyramid, but hasn't hammered the middle class properly yet.

[Plantagenet]

I'm travelling in Australia, and the economy seems to be really strong here. Lots of stores and businesses have adverts in the windows looking to hire workers.