Is anyone else out there scared about the economy?

[Hartyt509]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mummergirl honestly i wonder where all my money went when i still lived with my parents in my early 20s? sure i didn't make that much either, but i had a phone bill & car insurance and that was pretty much it for bills ... WHERE DID ALL MY MONEY GO?

Movies, and drink lmao well thats where mine went lmao now i'm sick of being skint lol

[Virg]

Anyone else has had their employment affected by the economy??

 

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Anyone else has had their employment affected by the economy?? Both in the US and Canada it has been pretty bad.

 

My father has been an engineer in the manufacturing industry for over 30 years. The plant he was running closed down in 2005, textile industry, no surprise there, we all buy (made in Bangladesh clothes now to save $$).

 

With his experience and education he was able to find another job no problem, it took about a year and it was in a different manufacturing industry though. My parents sold their house and moved in Summer 2006.

 

Today we just found out that his company has decided to close the Canadian plant due to our high dollar and the shifty economy in the US (Thank you George W. !) , while maintaining the US plant open. Because of his position, he is getting a severance package (hopefully a good one). But he still has to tell 300 + employees that they are out of a job, and he himself has to come to terms with it.

 

This SUCKS. :sad:

 

My father is getting up there in age (mid 50s) and could be a victim on ageism…

My brother feels like shit right now too because my parents helped to pay for his wedding this summer, which was about 10 000$ in help (guestimate).

 

I just feel so useless while my family is having such a difficult time…

 

Thanks for letting me vent.

[sunset78]

Where I am located the place is busy... there's a HUGE worker shortage here in almost every sector. But the cost of housing is very expensive. We have been very lucky to not be affected by what has been going on in the ecomony.

 

Unfortunately though a lot of people that do come here sometimes have unreasonable expectations... you can very easily get a job in retail, restaurants, "town" jobs, but everyone wants to work on the sites to make "big" money. They come thinking they are going to be making well over 100,000 - 150,000 a year... and a lot don't. And then they have no money/not enough to stay anywhere, and can barely survive.

 

Here is a world of it's own it seems, unaffected by housing slumps, layoffs, etc. it's just the opposite.

[CayoLargo]

Well from a Canadian perspective...

 

Farmers...yea many farmers in Alberta and other areas are changing their crops to corn and less on the other things we rely on (wheat, grains, etc.). They are changing because of a demand for corn for fuel. This is then impacting the price of things like flour and feed for animals...which then goes into the price of meat!

 

Gas Prices...Well even though we have gas right underneath us we are still paying high prices for gas...it is slowly coming down but will never get to where it is truly worth driving anywhere.

 

Housing costs...They are coming down all around us...but are still high since the market went so crazy and houses that 5 years ago were asking $100,000 are now asking $300,000. If you own your home you will need to look at financing, and depreciation but if you are like me and my FI we are holding out for the market to continually drop and then buy a home that is not too big at a decent price within our range.

 

Stocks...Well many are going down down down...but when they are down the only way to go is out or up...so my FI and I who have not bought stock yet are watching some of the stocks that are going down now...but at some point in the next 10 years will go up....so buy some of the stocks at their lowest and watch them go up again!

 

I feel really bad for all those families who bought homes or invested and are now losing money, homes, and even their jobs...my thought go out to those people...because in the long run the ones who suffer the most are CHILDREN!

 

Well that was long winded...sorry!

[JoLo908]

I think things are just rougher everywhere... at my FI's job (auto industry) they had to cut a lot of commissions and overtime due to slowing sales.

And we are renters right now... and it is so expensive! I agree it is difficult to save money. I just feel bad for all of the families who are tightening their budgets as much as possible, and work so hard, and still cannot get by... my heart goes out to them...

[coppergoddess13]

I'm a bit scared... There are a variety of things that make me worried about the next few years, but I currently have a pretty stable job (I work in a university- once you are in, you're set). As long as we keep an even keel with our saving, I think FI and I will weather out the financial issues well enough.

 

It just frustrates me how much food costs now! As Cayo mentioned- the emphasis on ethanol has driven corn prices through the roof- so more farmers plant it, and so everything else gets more expensive. The sad part is that ethanol is not the gasoline savior that the gov is touting it as, and in the next decade, they will most likely have to pull funding from the program... which will effectively shut down all the older ethanol plants... which will punch a huge hole in the corn prices... Cheaper food for us suddenly, but thousands of farmers will be struggling.

 

So, sadly, even if we cycle out of this current oncoming depression within the next couple years, its likely that another one will appear fairly soon due to this. *sigh* I wish I wasn't in the animal industry where I'd hear about that- then I'd have less to think about!

[JoLo908]

Okay, what the heck happened today? I was taking a break from work, getting ready to cook dinner, and it is like economic panic?! I read a few articles online, and things look shaky... what is going on??

[*Heather*]

Just found this online:

 

Lehman Brothers make history

 

Lehman Brothers made history Monday with the largest bankruptcy filing ever, Mike Bickford of Jupiter eSources said Monday.

 

The 158-year-old firm, which has US$639 billion in assets, employs about 25,000 people worldwide.

 

Bickford said the next biggest bankruptcy on record was by Worldcom Inc., which had US$126 billion in assets. Enron Corp. had US$81 billion in assets when it filed for bankruptcy.

 

Lehman Brothers' demise, which was caused by US$60 billion in soured real estate holdings, comes just six months after the collapse of Bear Stearns.

 

Meanwhile, Bank of America said in a statement Monday it would acquire Merrill Lynch & Co. in an all-stock transaction worth about US$50 billion.

 

Merrill Lynch was hit hard by the 14-month-old credit crisis, which saw home values plummet and mortgage defaults rise.

 

"A lot of people are getting burned," Lorraine Tan, director at Standard & Poor's equity research in Singapore, said Monday.

 

"It's better to get this out of the system. Hopefully for the U.S. this could be it as far as potential failures of investment banks."

[JoLo908]

Wow, this is crazy... yeah, everything sounds panicked.... I just read an article saying that banks were ensuring people up to $100,000 in their accounts, but they are suggesting people spread their money/investments...

[Bianca]

My mom has a full time job and a part time job. Turns out the country club that was her part time job went bankrupt overnight. It has only been open since May...