What's the current economy in your area like?

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"Shouldn't have taken".
A little personal responsibility please,,,
No guns were used in the signing of that mortgage.

There is always that. But those guys in a mortgage company meeting room can make a car salesmen in that little closing room look like rookies.
 
"Shouldn't have taken".
A little personal responsibility please,,,
No guns were used in the signing of that mortgage.

Yes there were. Big time.

I went in to correct an over draft issue at the bank a few years ago and the "salesman's" first response was to try to sell me a HELOC. even when I explained the situation (very minor to fix, it was a $200 over draft issue that I could resolve in a matter of days) again, and again, he pushed the HELOC as a solution :mad: .

Heard a good quote from a friend a few weeks ago. "Those that have it want to keep it, and don't want those that don't have it to get it". Oh so true. ::-)
 
Local economy just got another death knell in Gov't regulations and I've lost 10 more accounts since the end of July.
House two doors down just foreclosed and the house next door the guy walked away from. I've been cutting that lawn just to keep it less attractive to the rabbits.
Closing this 32 year old business is staring me in the face.
 
Local economy just got another death knell in Gov't regulations and I've lost 10 more accounts since the end of July.
House two doors down just foreclosed and the house next door the guy walked away from. I've been cutting that lawn just to keep it less attractive to the rabbits.
Closing this 32 year old business is staring me in the face.

What regulation and business is that?
 
Local economy just got another death knell in Gov't regulations and I've lost 10 more accounts since the end of July.
House two doors down just foreclosed and the house next door the guy walked away from. I've been cutting that lawn just to keep it less attractive to the rabbits.
Closing this 32 year old business is staring me in the face.

More than a couple guys around here are contracted by the banks to mow/maintain foreclosed properties. They sure aren't maintained to the same standard a homeowner would demand but they do get paid.
 
More than a couple guys around here are contracted by the banks to mow/maintain foreclosed properties. They sure aren't maintained to the same standard a homeowner would demand but they do get paid.
I wish they did that here.
I'm not doing any fancy job that's for sure. Just knocked down enough so that when I do start riding through dozens of rabbits don't go hopping and bouncing through the tall grass ahead of me . ( and they go somewhere else to build their fuzzy grey nests, hopefully far far away)
 
Only if you let them.
There were a lot of weird downright illegal dealings- switching front pages of documents, robo-signed documents, etc- in addition to people taking loans they could not afford and banks giving loans to people they did not fully vet because they KNEW they'd be repackaging and selling that risk before it bore bad fruit.
 
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In my position I have the ability to keep a pulse on a fairly large arena. Basically IL, WI, and IA. I see regional differences that swing both up and down. The Rockford IL area is still fairly depressed as far as jobs and construction goes, yet Chicago and some of the burbs are picking back up robustly. Southern WI sucks, yet the North east portion is picking up. Iowa was almost unaffected from the down turn with the exception of housing starts and commercial work slowing. Both are picking back up.

With including two new stores in the last couple of years, my company is holding our own and actually improving profit by about 25% per yr since 2009.

We are on our way back folks. Its going to be slow going, but we are crawling in the right direction. 2015 will be the new 2006.;)
 
Yes there were. Big time.

I went in to correct an over draft issue at the bank a few years ago and the "salesman's" first response was to try to sell me a HELOC. even when I explained the situation (very minor to fix, it was a $200 over draft issue that I could resolve in a matter of days) again, and again, he pushed the HELOC as a solution :mad: .

Heard a good quote from a friend a few weeks ago. "Those that have it want to keep it, and don't want those that don't have it to get it". Oh so true. ::-)

I understand but if the od didn't happen in the first place...
Look, everyone needs to make a living and I don't begrudge anyone their sales tactics, but don't you feel better or even a sense of triumph when you drive away from a car lot or any where you do business, knowing that you didn't drink the koolaid they were trying to sell you?
If more people took responsibility for their actions and didn't act like lemmings to the sea every time a new Mcburger comes out, we would all be better off for it.
I shall now yield the floor....
 
I understand but if the od didn't happen in the first place...
Look, everyone needs to make a living and I don't begrudge anyone their sales tactics, but don't you feel better or even a sense of triumph when you drive away from a car lot or any where you do business, knowing that you didn't drink the koolaid they were trying to sell you?
If more people took responsibility for their actions and didn't act like lemmings to the sea every time a new Mcburger comes out, we would all be better off for it.
I shall now yield the floor....

OD's happen, often due to circumstances beyond peoples control.

I'm gonna jump off of a cliff now. But first, I'm gonna eat a Mcburger, for, for gits & shiggles.

I do begrudge sales tactics, it's how an inflated "things are good, deregulate more" caused a big portion of this mess.
 
In my position I have the ability to keep a pulse on a fairly large arena. Basically IL, WI, and IA. I see regional differences that swing both up and down. The Rockford IL area is still fairly depressed as far as jobs and construction goes, yet Chicago and some of the burbs are picking back up robustly. Southern WI sucks, yet the North east portion is picking up. Iowa was almost unaffected from the down turn with the exception of housing starts and commercial work slowing. Both are picking back up.

With including two new stores in the last couple of years, my company is holding our own and actually improving profit by about 25% per yr since 2009.

We are on our way back folks. Its going to be slow going, but we are crawling in the right direction. 2015 will be the new 2006.;)

I agree Jags.... my self included. But we gotta keep at it. And it's gonna be one helluva fight.
 
We are on our way back folks. Its going to be slow going, but we are crawling in the right direction. 2015 will be the new 2006.;)

You mean another unsustainable growth bubble just waiting to crash and burn?
 
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You mean another unsustainable growth bubble just waiting to crash and burn?

Nah. If we don't grow too fast, we won't crash too quickly. I hope we learned the Real Estate lesson. It seems that, based on Facebook, many people (most) have learned the dot-com lesson.

My prediction is that the next bubble is medical technology (bio-tech, genetics). However, like the dot-com, it is based on reality....but it will get ahead of itself and probably cause some investment problems.

But for now, I say Buy Buy Buy...and, hopefully, they will be able to heal heal heal. Some amazing stuff happening. I used to say I was glad to be around for the birth of the internet, but the next generation is gonna say they were glad to be around for the full unlocking of the genetic codes.
 
You mean another unsustainable growth bubble just waiting to crash and burn?

Nah. If we don't grow too fast, we won't crash too quickly. I hope we learned the Real Estate lesson. .... snip

Not to burst anyone's bubble but the real estate bubble is a recurring theme. It happens when you compensate those who write the loans on the amount of the loan they write and have no provision for claw back.

The same situation of what are essentially bad loans on day one has been seen in all aspects of the loan universe. The biggest one is in the making at this moment. Massive educational loans with little actual prospect for payoff.
 
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Not to burst anyone's bubble but the real estate bubble is a recurring theme. It happens when you compensate those who write the loans on the amount of the loan they write and have no provision for claw back.

The same situation of what are essentially bad loans on day one has been seen in all aspects of the loan universe. The biggest one is in the making at this moment. Massive educational loans with little actual prospect for payoff.

True - but, firstly, the education loans don't start to total in the trillions....as does real estate, so the scope is somewhat different. Student loan debt, all told, is about one trillion...most of which is at least "decent" debt, so it cannot rock the boat like the MANY trillions in the last crash.

Real Estate debt is closer to 15 Trillion. Those are fairly big numbers. But it's not a question of the debt - but rather the inflated part of it......

I agree that Real Estate and many other commodities have recurring "waves", but I would not call them all bubbles in the traditional sense. My boat can deal with some decent sized waves, but should a 40 footer "rogue" come along, I'll be toast.

I've seen at least 3, and maybe more, big real estate bubbles....but nothing compared to this one. If we don't let it get that far out of hand, then the return to earth will be softer. IMHO, anyway.
 
At the risk of sending this to the can.... I think the fundamental flaw in the reasoning (and this is not anyone in particular here.. im saying civilization in general) is the assumption that we can grow forever on this finite planet - even slow growth.

Curing every disease is great... but what if then we cant feed the extra 2-3 billion people we end up with?

Not to mention finding enough coal and oil to keep the worlds factory... err China... pumping out the trinkets we all gotta have.

And so on...
 
At the risk of sending this to the can.... I think the fundamental flaw in the reasoning (and this is not anyone in particular here.. im saying civilization in general) is the assumption that we can grow forever on this finite planet - even slow growth.

Curing every disease is great... but what if then we cant feed the extra 2-3 billion people we end up with?

Not to mention finding enough coal and oil to keep the worlds factory... err China... pumping out the trinkets we all gotta have.

And so on...

No problem. Us boomers are falling like flies.
 
At the risk of sending this to the can.... I think the fundamental flaw in the reasoning (and this is not anyone in particular here.. im saying civilization in general) is the assumption that we can grow forever on this finite planet - even slow growth.

Curing every disease is great... but what if then we cant feed the extra 2-3 billion people we end up with?

Not to mention finding enough coal and oil to keep the worlds factory... err China... pumping out the trinkets we all gotta have.

And so on...


Well you see it goes like this, we are supposed to be smart enough to get off this rock or we simply die off.

The planet has one and only one job to recycle everything on it including us.
 
At the risk of sending this to the can.... I think the fundamental flaw in the reasoning (and this is not anyone in particular here.. im saying civilization in general) is the assumption that we can grow forever on this finite planet - even slow growth.

Curing every disease is great... but what if then we cant feed the extra 2-3 billion people we end up with?

And so on...

I'm an optimist. Food is not a problem. Energy is not a problem (speaking long term).

The "growth" I foresee is growth in what you and I spend to be healthier and to cure the sick and infirm. That requires vastly less resources than, for instance, growing by building bigger houses or bigger SUVs.

"Growth" does not always mean more resources. If we work less, we probably consume less. A computer/tv/tablet of the future is likely to use 1/4 or less the energy of a old TV.

Efficiency is the key to the future. I think the future is bright.
 
Webbie-

I'll move my response to the current line of argument over to the can so we dont have to kick this thread.

.......

To get us back on track I will answer the OP's question. Around me, things dont look too bad. I see new construction ongoing again. My company only let a few people go last year and Ive heard most folks have found new positions. The value of my house is still in the tank, but so far I'm not underwater. I see extreme difficulty for folks in my parents generation who weren't able to protect their retirement nest egg, and 20 somethings who still cant find jobs out of school. Lots of small business still going under. Those of us in between (30s/40s) with advanced education and who were able to hold onto decent jobs at stable companies through the worst of it seem to be doing ok.
 
You mean another unsustainable growth bubble just waiting to crash and burn?

Hmmm....I am trying to pick my direction as to not kick this to the can....

The housing bubble that burst was a wicked, unregulated friggen mess that I HOPE we are smart enough to avoid happening again. The dotcom bubble was another wet dream where peeps had "millions" worth of websites with no capital. Does not compute. The next guy that comes along and does it better, faster, with more buttons, wins. "POP" goes the bubble.

The current growth pattern is not a bubble. It is typically sensible growth with some mfg. coming back to the states. Slowly building housing markets (hey, the increase in population has to live somewhere) and commercial stuff.

Our fossil fuel energy sources ARE finite. I have been on that side of the argument for a looong time. As in the past, when hurdles need to be overcome - we do it. The next big thing in batteries, or solar, or bio, or raising green slime to produce fuels.... makes things a game changer. You don't know what is around the corner (nor do I) that will change the game. Autos? Heck, that happened just a little over a hundred years ago. Computers - pretty recent invention in the scheme of things. You get the picture that I am trying to paint (I hope).

To suggest that we need to stagnate and come to a grinding halt ain't fixing a thing. We had the same "food" concerns years ago. When we were raising 80 bushel per acre corn. Now its 180 (not counting failed years, like this one). We have a tendency to figure things out. It is what has perpetuated humans to the point we are at now, and I don't really see that changing.

We are coming back, folks. Take slow, deep breathes and keep on keep'in on.
 
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