how is the recession affecting you?

I'm lucky enough to be on salary at a job that wont really get effected by that (so far). I'm glad to say I haven't felt it...*knock on wood*
 
Charities have also become victims of the economy. The charity I manage has really been struggling so we've had to get creative with our fund raising (raffles, karaoke marathons, posting in forums like this one).

https://sponsor.isara.org

:)
 
I just want to say that we're actually in a depression. (GDP growth is less than the inflation rate, which means the economy is shrinking. A recession is when GDP growth slows.) And that while 401ks are what people are focusing on, the value of the dollar is at big risk, and I think its going to get a hell of a lot worse before it gets better. In my life, we have never had an economic situation like this. At this point (judging by the mainstream media) most people think this is just a recession. I'm afraid they're going to be in for a rude awakening.
 
I think it has been more a mental strain than anything. I did loose a lucrative weekly editing gig for a very large corporation that laid off all of their freelancers. Money that we counted on to pay off some home renovations. So it is going to take us longer to pay that off. We pay our bills, but there are no more renos or trips, or anything of the sort that would deem a luxury item in our near future. We could be WAY worse off. But I am sure I am not the only one in this boat, and our collective lack of spending is hurting more businesses. It would be nice to see this turn around.
 
On the news today it said the Bank Bailout is costing each American household $18,000 right now, and that figure is going to go to over $80,000 per household.

To bad Barack just didn't decide to give a fully equipped Epic-X to every American household ... but I guess Nancy sees things differently.
 
I'm actually in the banking industry, and things are far, far better than people realize. I think people are comparing our current economy to an economy that existed in a bubble. Once the bubble burst, all anything did was just go back to some normalized level. If you look at the growth of the DOW and of housing prices over the last few years, it's ridiculous! None of it was sustainable. Everyone was spending and buying way too much. Now we're just back to normal levels, where not everyone has to have 5 spare bedrooms and 2 SUVs.

But hey, all this stimulus cash being flooded into my sector is AWESOME! It means, quite simply, that between April 4th and June 2010, there will be another boom in the banking industry. You should see some of the things this bill is allowing for! 105% LTVs. No appraisals. Ridiculously lenient parameters on loan mods. This is a dream come true in the banking sector -- and I'm sure the economy as a whole will feel a boost because of it.

I mean, if we're able to throw around 1 and 2% rates just so that people can be at a 31% debt ratio, etc., everyone can go back to spending their cash on a bunch of crap they don't need! Eventually, of course, things will become mundane again and capitalism will be marginally crippled (at least as it pertains to housing and the markets), but by then we should be seeing an energy (or, Green) boom to displace the current boom the banking industry is about to recieve.

And, I mean, yeah -- the tax payers are footing the bill. But who cares? Every major country is actually worse off than we are right now, and all of them are following in our footsteps. The only way America's economy (and its dollar) would have been at risk is if China or Russia or any of Europe would have been doing BETTER than America in this financial crisis. That's why you see the dollar continue to get stronger.

Great, great things are on the way. Not to be political, but thank christ we have free-wheeling Demos in the White House right now. America needs to leverage WITH OVERSIGHT, opposed to the kind of leveraging that went on during the previous boom years.

In regards to film, though, I really think that as the economy has "appeared" worse, it's actually aided in some innovation. I can't help but think digital cinema (like the Red and soon to be Scarlet) had been sitting on the sidelines for a long time, much like the electric car. The powers that be saw no reason for Prosumer (and now ACTUAL Pro) cameras to be available, as those would eventually overtake their much, much more expensive brethern.

So -- YAY everyone thinking the economy is so horrible.

And YAY for me knowing and seeing and profiting in an economy that I know is ripe for another explosion (trickling down from certain sectors, of course).
 
I can feel it. One of my main client´s got a lot of orders canceled - that translates to "no jobs for me".

An other one sourced out the 3D jobs I usualy got to China.

So I´m sitting here and try to generate new busines, but it`s not easy in the moment.

Frank
 
Chamber005 said:
I'm actually in the banking industry, and things are far, far better than people realize. I think people are comparing our current economy to an economy that existed in a bubble. Once the bubble burst, all anything did was just go back to some normalized level. If you look at the growth of the DOW and of housing prices over the last few years, it's ridiculous! None of it was sustainable. Everyone was spending and buying way too much. Now we're just back to normal levels, where not everyone has to have 5 spare bedrooms and 2 SUVs.

But hey, all this stimulus cash being flooded into my sector is AWESOME! It means, quite simply, that between April 4th and June 2010, there will be another boom in the banking industry. You should see some of the things this bill is allowing for! 105% LTVs. No appraisals. Ridiculously lenient parameters on loan mods. This is a dream come true in the banking sector -- and I'm sure the economy as a whole will feel a boost because of it.

I mean, if we're able to throw around 1 and 2% rates just so that people can be at a 31% debt ratio, etc., everyone can go back to spending their cash on a bunch of crap they don't need! Eventually, of course, things will become mundane again and capitalism will be marginally crippled (at least as it pertains to housing and the markets), but by then we should be seeing an energy (or, Green) boom to displace the current boom the banking industry is about to recieve.

And, I mean, yeah -- the tax payers are footing the bill. But who cares? Every major country is actually worse off than we are right now, and all of them are following in our footsteps. The only way America's economy (and its dollar) would have been at risk is if China or Russia or any of Europe would have been doing BETTER than America in this financial crisis. That's why you see the dollar continue to get stronger.

Great, great things are on the way. Not to be political, but thank christ we have free-wheeling Demos in the White House right now. America needs to leverage WITH OVERSIGHT, opposed to the kind of leveraging that went on during the previous boom years.

In regards to film, though, I really think that as the economy has "appeared" worse, it's actually aided in some innovation. I can't help but think digital cinema (like the Red and soon to be Scarlet) had been sitting on the sidelines for a long time, much like the electric car. The powers that be saw no reason for Prosumer (and now ACTUAL Pro) cameras to be available, as those would eventually overtake their much, much more expensive brethern.

So -- YAY everyone thinking the economy is so horrible.

And YAY for me knowing and seeing and profiting in an economy that I know is ripe for another explosion (trickling down from certain sectors, of course).
Click to expand...

For the first time I realize how fortunate it is that one can't get lynched over the internet.

:)
 
Sad Max said:
For the first time I realize how fortunate it is that one can't get lynched over the internet.

:)
Click to expand...

LOL...Boom goes the booms...I'm tired of booms. How about some nice comfortable stability and gentle long term growth for once?
 
Chamber005 said:
I'm actually in the banking industry, and things are far, far better than people realize. I think people are comparing our current economy to an economy that existed in a bubble. Once the bubble burst, all anything did was just go back to some normalized level. If you look at the growth of the DOW and of housing prices over the last few years, it's ridiculous! None of it was sustainable. Everyone was spending and buying way too much. Now we're just back to normal levels, where not everyone has to have 5 spare bedrooms and 2 SUVs.

But hey, all this stimulus cash being flooded into my sector is AWESOME! It means, quite simply, that between April 4th and June 2010, there will be another boom in the banking industry. You should see some of the things this bill is allowing for! 105% LTVs. No appraisals. Ridiculously lenient parameters on loan mods. This is a dream come true in the banking sector -- and I'm sure the economy as a whole will feel a boost because of it.

I mean, if we're able to throw around 1 and 2% rates just so that people can be at a 31% debt ratio, etc., everyone can go back to spending their cash on a bunch of crap they don't need! Eventually, of course, things will become mundane again and capitalism will be marginally crippled (at least as it pertains to housing and the markets), but by then we should be seeing an energy (or, Green) boom to displace the current boom the banking industry is about to recieve.

And, I mean, yeah -- the tax payers are footing the bill. But who cares? Every major country is actually worse off than we are right now, and all of them are following in our footsteps. The only way America's economy (and its dollar) would have been at risk is if China or Russia or any of Europe would have been doing BETTER than America in this financial crisis. That's why you see the dollar continue to get stronger.

Great, great things are on the way. Not to be political, but thank christ we have free-wheeling Demos in the White House right now. America needs to leverage WITH OVERSIGHT, opposed to the kind of leveraging that went on during the previous boom years.

In regards to film, though, I really think that as the economy has "appeared" worse, it's actually aided in some innovation. I can't help but think digital cinema (like the Red and soon to be Scarlet) had been sitting on the sidelines for a long time, much like the electric car. The powers that be saw no reason for Prosumer (and now ACTUAL Pro) cameras to be available, as those would eventually overtake their much, much more expensive brethern.

So -- YAY everyone thinking the economy is so horrible.

And YAY for me knowing and seeing and profiting in an economy that I know is ripe for another explosion (trickling down from certain sectors, of course).
Click to expand...

YAY for the tidal wave of rage that is about to break the crumbling facade of internet decorum and overwhelm the oblivious noob.
 
Chamber005 said:
I'm actually in the banking industry,
Click to expand...

Good job, it took me half the post before I went from "banking industry dude typically clueless about economics" to "this is some of the most tasty bait ever, too tasty."

Batutta said:
LOL...Boom goes the booms...I'm tired of booms. How about some nice comfortable stability and gentle long term growth for once?
Click to expand...

We had that. People talk about the boom-bust cycle, but it didn't really exist before 1915. In the past such dramatic economic issues required major wars. Otherwise we just had consistent growth... and in fact, our country went from being a third world debtor nation to one of the world super powers between its founding and around 1900.

In 1915 (or was it 1913?) two things happened-- the IRS was formed, and our currency was handed over to a banking cartel made up of the major wealthy private banks. This cartel is called the "federal reserve". And the deal they set with the government-- that they would print all the money the government needed so long as they had a monopoly on the interest-- has caused destroyed the american economic miracle.

Being able to print money at will allows the government to smooth over a lot of things-- like the $2T bailouts we've had in the past 6 months... but it devalues the currency and makes the economy less stable over time.

Thus when the government forces the interest rates to below the level of inflation as they did after the dotcom bust, you get the housing bubble. Now that the housing bubble has busted, they're going to create another bubble-- it looks like this will be a bubble in government construction, equivalent to the WPA, NRA and other programs that turned the 1930s from a recession into the Great Depression.

I've benefited greatly by having an understanding of economics that let me predict these kinds of cycles-- not perfectly, I'm not a genius, but I've had a lot of warning.

The fundamentals take maybe an afternoon to learn-- its really not nearly as complicated as its made out to be. You can read contemporary articles at www.mises.org or read the book "Economics in one lesson" by Henry Hazlitt.
 
Last edited:
LizaWitz said:
We had that. People talk about the boom-bust cycle, but it didn't really exist before 1915.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I wasn't alive then. In my lifetime it's either been "greed is good" or "the sky is falling", and it's gotten exhausting.
 
Surprisingly the recession isn't really taking it's toll on me. For some reason all of my financial trouble has been hitting me for the past two years up until a couple weeks ago. Then I got slammed with work out of the blue.

I'm just happy that I'm making money NOW rather than being in the rut I was in for the past two years.
 
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