Friday, December 5, 2008

The Ever Inconsistant Friday Boobie

Well, a Boobie showed up this week. A red-footed one at that.

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

News We Knew

The wise economists just figured out what most of us already knew: the country has been in a recession since last December.

Dec. 1 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. economy entered a recession a year ago this month, the panel that dates American business cycles said today, making this contraction already the longest since 1982.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=al4iyIoRhvao&refer=home


Thanks for telling us, guys. But most of us were all too aware that the economy was in shitty shape, going back even farther than that. Despite shrub and the rethuglicans repeated cheers that "our economy is strong", anybody living on the lower end of the money pyramid knew it sucked.
In my own situation, the job market is terrible. I spent the summer and fall working for a buddies landscaping business while trying to find better employment without luck. One sign that the economy was in trouble was when a number of his accounts started dropping his services (some he's had for almost 20 years). These are relatively well off folks (poor people don't hire gardeners) but they felt they had to cut back their spending somewhere. I still made enough to get by, but not more. And now the season is done. I'm broke and looking for work, and I've got a lot of company. This morning I was one of about 25 applying for a warehouse job that pays little and demands a lot. Just another sign of the times.

Added: Our good blog buddy Monkeyfister (http://www.monkeyfister.blogspot.com/) has some great advice for how to survive the coming years. Some of his suggestions may be unavailable to some of us, but he's got a lot of resources available that may be usefull to many.