How has the recent economic turmoil affected you?

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naednek
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Re: How has the recent economic turmoil affected you?

Post by naednek »

Exodor wrote: Mon Sep 10, 2018 1:28 pm I think Subway could use to reduce the number of franchisees - even now there are 3 within a ~5 mile radius of us.
That's funny that you say that, because on our way to the 49ers game from Sacramento, we were counting how many subways we came across just from the freeway. We lost count.
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Re: How has the recent economic turmoil affected you?

Post by Isgrimnur »

Sears
Sears, the one-time titan of American retail, filed for bankruptcy ahead of a $134 million debt payment due Monday and announced that it will close 142 stores.

For years, Sears has contended with the threat that it would become the latest big-name retailer to fall to online competition and crushing debt. The icon once known for its pristine catalogs, and more recently known for decrepit showrooms and a controversial chief executive, saw its stock price plunge last week after reports that it had hired an advisory firm to prepare a bankruptcy filing ahead of the Oct. 15 payment.

Early Monday morning, Sears announced it had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy -- which would allow it to reorganize and possibly reemerge from bankruptcy with some part of the business intact -- and received commitments for $300 million in debtor-in-possession financing to carry through the bankruptcy period while it restructures its debt and reorganizes its business. The company is negotiating an additional $300 million in financing from ESL Investments, a hedge fund run by Sears' former chief executive, Eddie Lampert. ESL Investments is also Sears' largest stockholder and creditor.

“The intention is to bring the company out on the other side,” a person familiar with the negotiations told The Post on Friday.
...
Sears will close 142 unprofitable stores near the end of this year, with liquidation sales at those stores expected to begin soon. It was not immediately clear where those stores are located or how many jobs would be affected. Those store closings are in addition to 46 others that were expected by next month.
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Re: How has the recent economic turmoil affected you?

Post by coopasonic »

But where are we going to go for... uhhh... trying to remember the last time I considered Sears for any purchase. I think we may have bought a washer and dryer there 9 years ago. I also have a big craftsman tool chest but it is much older than that.
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Re: How has the recent economic turmoil affected you?

Post by Kraken »

It's kinda ironical that the former catalog giant couldn't make it in the internet era. Those businesses are not that different.

I'll miss Kenmore and Craftsman. We never shopped Sears for anything but small appliances, but they were always competitive there. Off the top of my head, we bought a Dyson vacuum, an air conditioner, an Amana gas range, a microwave oven, and a snowblower there.
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Re: How has the recent economic turmoil affected you?

Post by LordMortis »

Kraken wrote: Mon Oct 15, 2018 4:35 pm It's kinda ironical that the former catalog giant couldn't make it in the internet era. Those businesses are not that different.

I'll miss Kenmore and Craftsman. We never shopped Sears for anything but small appliances, but they were always competitive there. Off the top of my head, we bought a Dyson vacuum, an air conditioner, an Amana gas range, a microwave oven, and a snowblower there.
What's new is old again. They fell prey to moving from innovator to classic to irrelevant. To their credit, they made it nearly 100 years before faltering and over 100 before before the writing was on the wall.
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Re: How has the recent economic turmoil affected you?

Post by Scuzz »

I still prefer shopping for clothing at a brick and mortar place, and Sears has been one of those places. We also have bought a couple appliances there. But Sears, like many other stores have problems keeping their store "neat and orderly". This leads to the inventory being a mess and making it hard to find things.

Another casualty around here has been Blast Gyms. I have belonged to a gym in the same building for almost 20 years, but they closed two weeks ago and my membership was transferred (thankfully) to Planet Fitness. I don't know if Blast has closed everywhere but they shut down 5 gyms here.
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Re: How has the recent economic turmoil affected you?

Post by Fitzy »

Kraken wrote: Mon Oct 15, 2018 4:35 pm I'll miss Kenmore and Craftsman.
Craftsman at least was sold off. So you can still get tools!
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Re: How has the recent economic turmoil affected you?

Post by GreenGoo »

A couple of nukes in the right places and we're all gonna be shopping at our local mom and pop again. Assuming we have enough bottle caps.
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Re: How has the recent economic turmoil affected you?

Post by Z-Corn »

I always thought it would be cool to buy a house from Sears.
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Re: How has the recent economic turmoil affected you?

Post by Isgrimnur »

WaPo
U.S. markets opened in a steep slide on one of the busiest earnings days of the year as a global sell-off and a disappointing report by 3M — a major industrial company that is a window into the U.S. economy — had nervous investors fleeing stocks.

The Dow Jones industrial average dropped more than 400 points, or 1.7 percent, as trading opened Tuesday. The Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index was down 1.6 percent, its fourth decline in as many days. The tech-heavy Nasdaq, which has been whacked in recent weeks from the sell-off in the so-called FAANG shares — Facebook, Amazon.com, Apple, Netflix and Alphabet’s Google, Alphabet — was off 1.8 percent.

“Politics and earnings,” said Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist of U.S. Equity Strategy at CFRA. “Both 3M and Caterpillar appear to be spinning their wheels and showing the true effects of global tensions.”

3M and Caterpillar, another benchmark, dropped more than 6 percent in Tuesday’s pre-market trading as the companies failed to project robust outlooks for the rest of 2018. Caterpillar warned dealers worldwide that it would raise prices because of the growing cost of steel. The companies are closely followed because they have huge international sales and are seen as economic crystal balls.
...
U.S. markets were roiled in early morning hours from the steep decline across the board in Asia, reversing a slight Monday rally overseas. The Japanese Nikkei 225, China’s wheezing Shanghai Composite and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng all fell more than 2 percent.

Europe was down, too, with the London FTSE 100 down nearly 1 percent, the German DAX down 1.8 percent and teh Frech CAC 40 dropping slight more than 1 percent.

Markets are being hit from many sides: fears that the Chinese economy is slowing; uncertaintly over an upcoming U.S. election; rising interest rates in the United States; and worries that the long U.S. bull market is on its last legs.

Rising tensions between the United States and Saudi Arabia, a major world oil supplier, over the death of a Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi has also put markets on edge. Saudi’s ability to temper oil prices makes it a huge player in the global economy.
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Re: How has the recent economic turmoil affected you?

Post by em2nought »

Kraken wrote: Mon Oct 15, 2018 4:35 pm It's kinda ironic that the former catalog giant couldn't make it in the internet era.
It's amazing how badly their website works. Lowes and Home Depot aren't any better in that regard. At least that's my experience over my subpar internet connection.

Amazon is light years ahead in website functionality compared to those guys.
Technically, he shouldn't be here.
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Re: How has the recent economic turmoil affected you?

Post by Isgrimnur »

November Unemployment - 3.7% (0.0%)

Table A-4 - >= Age 25 by education level
CategoryPercentChangeYOY Change
Less than a high school diploma5.40.30.4
High school graduates, no college3.30.50.9
Some college or associate degree3.00.10.5
Bachelor's degree and higher2.10.10.2

Table A-1 - Unemployment Rate Ages 16-19 - 12.0% (0.4, 3.7 YOY)


Table A-11 - Reasons for unemployment

Job losers and persons who completed temporary jobs1.6
Job leavers0.4
Reentrants1.1
New entrants0.3

Table A-12 - Unemployed persons by duration of unemployment
WeeksChangeYOY Change
Average Duration22.71.13.7
Median Duration8.91.00.8
It's almost as if people are the problem.
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Re: How has the recent economic turmoil affected you?

Post by Isgrimnur »

Sears
Sears, the 125-year-old icon, has 24 hours to survive.

The employer of more than 68,000 filed for bankruptcy in October. Its last shot at survival is a $4.6 billion proposal put forward by its chairman, Eddie Lampert, to buy the company out of bankruptcy through his hedge fund, ESL Investments. ESL is the only party offering to buy Sears as a whole, people familiar with the situation tell CNBC. Without that bid or another like it, liquidators will break the company up into pieces.

But as Lampert stares down a deadline of Dec. 28 to submit his offer, he is quickly running out of time. As of Thursday afternoon, Lampert had neither submitted his bid, nor rounded up financing, the people familiar said. Should Lampert submit a bid, Sears' advisors would have until Jan. 4 to decide whether he is a "qualified bidder." Only then, could ESL take part in an auction against liquidation bids on Jan. 14.

It is possible Lampert, Sears' largest investor, secures financing in time to meet the deadline, these people said. The hedge fund manager turned retailer has managed last-minute feats before. Due to requirements by the Securities and Exchange Commission, Lampert will be required to make his bid public. That stipulation that could sway him to prolong the filing until its exact deadline of 4:00 p.m. ET Friday.
It's almost as if people are the problem.
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Re: How has the recent economic turmoil affected you?

Post by Grifman »

Isn’t this thread pretty much obsolete? After all the economy is doing pretty well, and there isn’t any economic turmoil of the type that started this’(stock market swings not withstanding). Or are we just hanging around waiting for the next recession?
Tolerance is the virtue of the man without convictions. – G.K. Chesterton
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Re: How has the recent economic turmoil affected you?

Post by Isgrimnur »

The economy as a whole might be doing well, but those gains haven't been seen by most outside of Wall Street. Affordable housing remains an issue, infrastructure is still creaky, wage growth is stagnant, there's no exuberance, irrational or otherwise, about the future, and the youngest members trying to contribute to society remain too poor to do the things that they've grown up being told that they should do.
It's almost as if people are the problem.
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Re: How has the recent economic turmoil affected you?

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WaPo
And while unemployment is at the lowest rate in almost 50 years, the percentage of people in the labor force has remained mysteriously low relative to other developed countries. Experts say part of that trend can be explained by demographics as baby boomers retire, but U.S. participation rates also lag for people of working age. One analysis from this summer found that if the United States had the same working-age participation as Britain, we’d have to factor another 11 million people into the unemployment rate.

Consider, also, that despite persistent economic growth, the number of people receiving food-stamp benefits remains more than 50 percent higher than the number before the beginning of the Great Recession. Or that homelessness in the United States ticked up for a second year in a row. Or that child homelessness is surging in some parts of the country.

And if another recession is actually the horizon, as many forecasters predict, it is clear many Americans aren’t prepared for it. A Federal Reserve survey from earlier this year found that 40 percent of adults don’t have the savings to cover a $400 emergency and that more than a quarter skipped a medical treatment because of the cost in 2017. And, once again, financial well-being is even worse for people of color.
...
There are many things contributing to these trends, but if we pull one takeaway from 2018, it’s that rising inequality is deepening fissures within American society. This divide has afforded those doing well to sail forth in the booming economy and escape the headwinds facing our country, but the rest of America — especially low-income households and minorities — haven’t been so lucky.

This is the new gilded age — to borrow insight from Mark Twain. It appears gold from the outside, complete with stunning economic growth and opportunity. But beneath that shimmering layer are social problems that are only getting worse. Until we address that underlying inequality, it’s tough to see the coming years getting any better.
It's almost as if people are the problem.
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Re: How has the recent economic turmoil affected you?

Post by Kraken »

The economy is creating high-paying, highly-skilled jobs in biotech and computers and robotics and healthcare; employers have trouble filling them because the skills needed are specialized and ever-changing. It's also creating a lot of low-paying service jobs with few or no benefits; employers have trouble filling those because nobody can make a decent living working in warehouses or delivery or food service or yard care. The kinds of decent-paying semi-skilled jobs that built the middle class are perpetually endangered. The economy's great if you're in the investor class or a technical professional. Jobs are also plentiful near the bottom, but those don't draw anyone into the workforce who's found another way to survive.

In semi-related news, the minimum wage in MA goes up to $12/hr next week, tying us with two other states for the highest minimum in the country. Many employers are already paying $15, which is where the law will take us by 2024, because that's the de facto minimum to attract and retain decent workers. It astonishes me that the $7.25 federal wage (which hasn't been raised in nearly 10 years) is still the floor in 20+ states. Income inequality is growing not just between social classes; it's also growing between rich states and poor states. (Granted, the cost of living is commensurately higher here, so our minimum-wage workers are not twice as well-off as those in the poor states.)
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Re: How has the recent economic turmoil affected you?

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https://www.propublica.org/article/olde ... retirement

"A new data analysis by ProPublica and the Urban Institute shows more than half of older U.S. workers are pushed out of longtime jobs before they choose to retire, suffering financial damage that is often irreversible."
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Re: How has the recent economic turmoil affected you?

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I'm sure that if I had stayed in the workforce I'd have been working at McDonald's by the time I retired.
I repaired electronic devices but they were getting so cheap as to not be repairable. The last company I worked (repairing lasers) for went out of business in 2002.
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Re: How has the recent economic turmoil affected you?

Post by Grifman »

Isgrimnur wrote: Fri Dec 28, 2018 4:30 pm The economy as a whole might be doing well, but those gains haven't been seen by most outside of Wall Street. Affordable housing remains an issue, infrastructure is still creaky, wage growth is stagnant, there's no exuberance, irrational or otherwise, about the future, and the youngest members trying to contribute to society remain too poor to do the things that they've grown up being told that they should do.
Perhaps so, but none of that is due to any “recent economic turmoil” but longer term economic trends and issues.
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Re: How has the recent economic turmoil affected you?

Post by coopasonic »

How has the on-going socio-economic turmoil affected you?
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Re: How has the recent economic turmoil affected you?

Post by Isgrimnur »

December Unemployment - 3.9% (0.2%)

Table A-4 - >= Age 25 by education level
CategoryPercentChangeYOY Change
Less than a high school diploma6.41.00.4
High school graduates, no college3.80.50.4
Some college or associate degree3.20.20.2
Bachelor's degree and higher2.00.10.0

Table A-1 - Unemployment Rate Ages 16-19 - 11.0% (1.0, 0.9 YOY)


Table A-11 - Reasons for unemployment

Job losers and persons who completed temporary jobs1.8
Job leavers0.1
Reentrants1.1
New entrants0.3

Table A-12 - Unemployed persons by duration of unemployment
WeeksChangeYOY Change
Average Duration21.51.22.0
Median Duration8.90.00.1
It's almost as if people are the problem.
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Re: How has the recent economic turmoil affected you?

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Labor participation
The rate of labor-force participation for prime-age adults (25-54) rose more in the fourth quarter of 2018 than in any quarter since 1994, part of a turnaround that started about three years ago. The rate climbed 1.1 percentage points from the end of 2015, reaching a 12-month average of 82 percent.

The participation rate among working-age women, described by Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta as “particularly strong,” has climbed 1.6 percentage points since December 2015, based on the 12-month average. The equivalent rate for men rose only 0.7 points.

The trend is muted for white men and women, but black men and women, as well as Hispanic and Asian women, are reentering the workforce at higher rates than at any other point in the recovery, suggesting the benefits of the expansion are finally reaching most corners of the economy.

Separate Labor Department figures showed more job openings than unemployed people in November, the most recent month for which data was available, continuing a trend that started in early 2018.

Breaking down the data by education, we see a trend that has surfaced many times: The groups who have historically faced the highest unemployment and worst job prospects are returning — in this case, workers who didn’t finish high school. That group has typically been unemployed at nearly twice the national rate.
It's almost as if people are the problem.
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Re: How has the recent economic turmoil affected you?

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Sears
Sears and ESL finally reached a deal. ESL agreed to boost its offer by about $150 million, putting the full bid slightly over $5.2 billion, the people said, and keeping the company from shutting about 400 stores.
...
Neither Sears nor ESL are out of the woods yet. Sears unsecured creditors are opposed to the bid, people familiar with situation said. They have said there may be claims against Sears for deals done under Lampert's tenure as CEO and its largest shareholder, which include Sears' spinoff of Lands' End in 2014 and transactions with Seritage Growth Properties, a real estate investment trust Lampert created through some Sears' properties a year later.

If the unsecured creditors formally object to the bid, the bankruptcy judge will need to assess the merits of their claim at a hearing Feb. 1 at the Southern District of New York Bankruptcy Court in White Plains. Lampert needs Drain's approval for the bid to be official.
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Re: How has the recent economic turmoil affected you?

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WaPo
U.S. stocks slipped on Tuesday as global growth worries were resurrected on news out of China, Germany and the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

The Dow Jones industrial average sank more than 400 points, about 1.9 percent, dragged down by DowDupont, 3M, Boeing and Caterpillar, companies with significant exposure to the Chinese economy.

The Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index fell about 1.9 percent, its biggest drop since Jan. 3. The S&P slid back into correction territory, with all 11 sectors down on the day. A correction is a 10 percent retreat from a recent high. It was the first S&P decline in five sessions.

The Nasdaq composite was well off its recent highs, was off about 2.4 percent, as technology stocks suffered.

The renewed volatility after several weeks of relative calm followed weekend reports from China that its official economic growth for 2018 came in at 6.6 percent, its slowest in 30 years. There was also news earlier this month that German industrial production had sharply slowed, in part because of declining exports to China.

“China is dealing with something very new, which is consumer-driven slowdown in growth,” said Glenn Youngkin, co-chief executive of the Carlyle Group during an appearance on Fox Business Network with anchor Maria Bartiromo. “One of the great recognitions is that China, which used to be this big export economy, is really driven by this giant consumer class that’s been created over the last 20 years.

“And that consumer class is nervous,” Youngkin said. “They’re nervous for all the same reasons that other people in the world are nervous, and that’s reflecting itself on the Chinese economy. “
It's almost as if people are the problem.
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Re: How has the recent economic turmoil affected you?

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CNBC
The number of Americans filing applications for unemployment benefits fell to more than a 49-year low last week, but the drop likely overstates the health of the labor market as claims for several states including California were estimated.
...
Initial claims for state unemployment benefits dropped 13,000 to a seasonally adjusted 199,000 for the week ended Jan. 19, the lowest level since mid-November in 1969 when 197,000 applications were recorded, the Labor Department said on Thursday. Data for the prior week was revised lower to show 1,000 fewer applications received than previously reported.

Economists polled by Reuters had forecast claims rising to 220,000 in the latest week. The Labor Department said claims for California, Kansas, North Dakota, Virginia, West Virginia and Hawaii were estimated last week because of Monday's Martin Luther King holiday.

This suggests last week's surprise decline in claims probably exaggerates the labor market's health. The four-week moving average of initial claims, considered a better measure of labor market trends as it irons out week-to-week volatility, fell 5,500 to 215,000 last week.
It's almost as if people are the problem.
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Re: How has the recent economic turmoil affected you?

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Yahoo
U.S consumer confidence fell to a 1-1/2 year-low in January as a partial shutdown of the government and financial markets turmoil left households a bit nervous about the economy's prospects.

The drop in confidence reported by the Conference Board on Tuesday mirrors another survey earlier this month showing sentiment tumbling to its lowest level since President Donald Trump was elected more than two years ago, strengthening analysts expectations that the economy was losing momentum.

"There's no way the Trump economics team forecast of 3 percent growth is going to be accurate this year if consumers' spirits don't brighten up a little," said Chris Rupkey, chief economist at MUFG in New York.

The Conference Board's consumer confidence index dropped 6.4 points to 120.2 this month, the lowest reading since July 2017. It blamed the third straight monthly decline in confidence to "financial market volatility and the government shutdown."
It's almost as if people are the problem.
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Re: How has the recent economic turmoil affected you?

Post by Default »

Who'da thunk it? <eyeroll>
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Re: How has the recent economic turmoil affected you?

Post by Kraken »

I rebalanced our retirement accounts a couple of weeks ago to "take profits" out of stocks and move them into bonds and -- for the first time ever -- cash (since bonds are so weak that I didn't want to bulk up on them too much). Might miss out on some more growth, and we are still 60% into equities, and some rebalancing happens automatically through target-date funds, and we aren't talking about huge sums here...but I feel a little more ready for a downturn.
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Re: How has the recent economic turmoil affected you?

Post by GreenGoo »

You know what would help consumer confidence?

A giant wall.
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Re: How has the recent economic turmoil affected you?

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I want to add something humorous about a street by that wall, but I got nothing.
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Re: How has the recent economic turmoil affected you?

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January Unemployment - 4.0% (0.1%)

Table A-4 - >= Age 25 by education level
CategoryPercentChangeYOY Change
Less than a high school diploma7.41.00.3
High school graduates, no college4.30.50.8
Some college or associate degree3.70.50.0
Bachelor's degree and higher2.50.50.3

Table A-1 - Unemployment Rate Ages 16-19 - 13.7% (2.7, 0.9 YOY)


Table A-11 - Reasons for unemployment

Job losers and persons who completed temporary jobs2.3
Job leavers0.5
Reentrants1.2
New entrants0.3

Table A-12 - Unemployed persons by duration of unemployment

WeeksChangeYOY Change
Average Duration19.22.33.5
Median Duration8.30.60.6
It's almost as if people are the problem.
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Re: How has the recent economic turmoil affected you?

Post by hitbyambulance »

still funemployed! companies are moving reeeeallly slow with scheduling second interviews.
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Re: How has the recent economic turmoil affected you?

Post by Isgrimnur »

WaPo
1. The shutdown had no impact on the 304,000 jobs number. This figure comes from a survey in which the Labor Department asks employers (both private sector and government) how many people were on the payroll for the pay period that includes Jan. 12. The furloughed federal workers were still on the payroll that day, even though they were not getting paid. The Labor Department still counted them as employed because the workers were going to be paid eventually.
...
2. The shutdown did affect the unemployment rate, which ticked up to 4 percent.
...
Furloughed workers were supposed to be categorized as “unemployed on temporary layoff,” but the Labor Department has to use whatever language the person answering the door says. So some furloughed workers classified themselves as “employed” while others said (correctly) that they were “unemployed temporarily."

The Labor Department said that some furloughed federal workers almost certainly misclassified themselves. The result is the unemployment rate probably should have been even higher — maybe 4.1 percent.
...
The takeaway: The shutdown had a real impact on 800,000 federal workers, and it did cause the unemployment rate to rise, but the economy still added 304,000 jobs because the private sector continues to hire at a strong pace (8,000 jobs came from the public sector, but the bulk came from private employers).
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Re: How has the recent economic turmoil affected you?

Post by hitbyambulance »

i just spoke to a recruiter and she speculated 'national government issues' may well be playing a part with the companies being slow to hire right now.
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Re: How has the recent economic turmoil affected you?

Post by Isgrimnur »

WaPo
A record seven million Americans are 90 days or more behind on their auto loan payments, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York reported Tuesday, even more than during the wake of the financial crisis era.

Economists warn this is a red flag. Despite the strong economy and low unemployment rate, many Americans are struggling to pay their bills.
...
A car loan is typically the first payment people make because a car is critical to get to work and someone can live in a car if all else fails. When car loan delinquencies rise, it’s a sign of significant duress among low-income and working class Americans.
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People who are three months or more behind on their car payments often lose their vehicle, making it even more difficult to get to work, the doctor or other critical places.
It's almost as if people are the problem.
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coopasonic
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Re: How has the recent economic turmoil affected you?

Post by coopasonic »

:doh:
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Isgrimnur
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Re: How has the recent economic turmoil affected you?

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WaPo, May 2018.
Although there are no national auto repossession statistics, other measures point to a growing problem. More than 4 percent of auto loans were at least 90 days late at the end of 2017 — the highest rate in five years. That number jumps to almost 10 percent for subprime auto loans alone, according to a report by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
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Analysts point to a period from 2014 to 2016, when auto lenders got too loose with credit. That helped the United States sell a record number of automobiles in 2016. But it also pushed the delinquency rate higher.
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The rate of auto loan write-offs — which includes repos — is trending higher but remains below its 2009 peak, according to Equifax numbers.
It's almost as if people are the problem.
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coopasonic
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Re: How has the recent economic turmoil affected you?

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The last time this happened, half of my coworkers were suddenly looking for jobs in a weak economy. Hoping it isn't my turn.
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Re: How has the recent economic turmoil affected you?

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USA Today
Roughly half the nation's business economists say they think the U.S. economy will slip into recession by the end of next year, and three-fourths envision such a downturn beginning by the end of 2021.

The finding comes from the latest survey by the National Association for Business Economics of its member economists. Just 10 percent of them say they foresee a recession beginning this year. At the other extreme, only 11 percent expect the economy to avoid a recession through 2021.
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More than 90 percent of NABE economists said the increased tariffs that the Trump administration has imposed in its trade conflicts with China and other countries will slow economic growth this year. Their estimates range from a subtraction of one-fourth of a percentage point in growth to a reduction of 1 percentage point or more.
It's almost as if people are the problem.
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