Is the economy better?

[PFC5]

Originally Posted by 1955

Bought and paid for by special interest groups...yes, but they spend OUR money.

Sadly that is so true.

[Cygnus]

I think this answers the question well...

http://money.cnn.com/2009/11/04/news...ion=2009110412
Personal bankruptcies surge 9%

Number of Americans filing for bankruptcy continues to climb. Total bankruptcies expected to top 1.4 million in 2009, highest in 4 years.

The number of Americans filing personal bankruptcies surged 9% in October and were on target for the highest annual total in four years, according to a report issued Wednesday.

The American Bankruptcy Institute, an industry research firm that relies on data from the National Bankruptcy Research Center, said 135,914 consumers filed for bankruptcy last month. Almost a third of the bankruptcies were filed under Chapter 13, in which consumers are put on a repayment plan of up to five years.

"The nearly 9% increase in consumer bankruptcy filings in October, together with a 7% jump reported in business cases, demonstrates the sustained stress on the U.S. economy," said ABI executive director Samuel Gerdano.

The group forecasts total bankruptcies to exceed 1.4 million in 2009, which would be the highest since 2005. It would also be an increase of at least 30% from last year.

"People are still carrying a lot of debt in terms of credit cards and home equity loans, and unemployment is still rising," said Maureen Thompson, legislative director for the National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys in Washington. "All of those factors are hitting consumers at the exact same time."

While some Americans are able to survive by tapping into savings and retirement funds, Thompson said many middle-income families are struggling after becoming unemployed for longer than anticipated. And with their homes values lower, interest rates creeping higher and credit lines reducing, they are being forced to declare bankruptcy.

[PFC5]

And now we have one of the largest banks (Citigroup) filing for bankruptcy also.

I have said it before and will say it again. I think we have another cliff to fall off of with the economy before things REALLY start getting better. I think it will take 5+ years before we get back to pre-2006 financial security unfortunately.

[Blckman]

No...The economy is not better. Here in California the unemployment rate is 12.2%. Just because the DJI is above 10,000 points doesn't necessarily mean that the economy is better. The GDP(Gross Domestic Product) and consumer spending is supposed to account for 70% of the American economy. Over 11,000,000 in the U.S. as a hole have lost their jobs to various sector. God bless those that can say they have an occupation that will contine to give them a paycheck. When I go in the retail stores I just see people getting their basic essentials. I see some big ticketed items being purchased, but for the most part people are trying to hang on to their pennies. I still see that the rich continue to get the rich and the poor continue to get poor. I'm a big NPR and Public Radio fan. Marketplace.org did a story on Marketplace Money in which they stated that the banks that the Feds bailed out and took over are doing superb. Of coure they are. The Feds bailed them out and CFO and CEO's continue to take billion dollar bonuses at the end of the year after almost coming to the brink of being bankrupt. What a country we have? It has it's pluses and it sure has it's minuses. You bet you the economy is horrible. 1 in 5 household are on the brink foreclosure. Most of those are updside down on their mortgage because the dumb as lenders and banks wrote a blank check. I fault the lender and the buyer. The lender should have disclosed what would happen when that huge double or tripple up payment would go into effect after a certain time. The consumer should have read the contract before signing on the dotted line. There are many people to blame for this economy. Man, I could go on forever. However, I will just stop wrting my book from and economic standpoint. Peace....

[PFC5]

Read my post above. Citigroup (Citibank parent) just filed for bankruptcy and they receiver several Billion (yes with a "B") in bailout money and they still filed.

[Cygnus]

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Unempl...f02b7e&ccode=1
Unemployment rate hits 10.2%, worst since 1983

The nation's unemployment rate rose above 10% for the first time since 1983 in October, a much worse jump than expected as employers continued to trim jobs from payrolls.

The reading, reported by the government Friday, is a sign of the continued weakness in the labor market even though the economy grew in the third quarter following the longest and deepest downturn since the Great Depression.

The government reported that the unemployment rate spiked to 10.2%, up from 9.8% in September. It is the highest that this rate has been since April 1983. Economists had forecast an increase to 9.9%.

There was also a net loss of 190,000 jobs in October, according to the Labor Department, an improvement from a revised estimate of 219,000 job losses in September. However, economists surveyed by Briefing.com had forecast a loss of only 175,000 jobs in October. This was the 22nd straight month of job losses.

"The only good news is the number of layoffs are dropping off, but those who are laid off still aren't finding jobs," said David Wyss, chief economist with Standard & Poor's.

The jump in the unemployment rate was driven up by a large drop in the number of people who describe themselves as self-employed, as well as the number of teenagers who have jobs. The unemployment rate for teenagers in the labor force soared to 27.6%, up 1.8 percentage points and hitting a third straight record high.

Both teen workers and the self-employed are not captured very well in the government's separate survey of employers that is used to calculate the number of people on U.S. payrolls. That explains much of the disconnect between fewer job losses overall and the much worse unemployment rate.

[bradm98]

Originally Posted by PFC5

Read my post above. Citigroup (Citibank parent) just filed for bankruptcy and they receiver several Billion (yes with a "B") in bailout money and they still filed.

CIT Group filed for Chapter 11 - Did Citigroup also file or did you get the two mixed up? CIT Group received about $2.3 Billion in TARP funds while Citigroup got closer to $50 Billion if I remember correctly.

[PFC5]

Your right. I read the headline quickly and thought it was Citigroup.

Thanks for correcting it.

[bradm98]

Originally Posted by PFC5

Your right. I read the headline quickly and thought it was Citigroup.

Thanks for correcting it.

Ah, OK - still, $2.3 billion of taxpayer money down the tubes is nothing to scoff at.

[PFC5]

Originally Posted by bradm98

Ah, OK - still, $2.3 billion of taxpayer money down the tubes is nothing to scoff at.

Like that Senator (can't remember his name) stated a few years ago about how ridiculous the staggering budget numbers are said; "A billion dollars here, a billion dollars there. Pretty soon we are talking about real money".

[oblioman]

Originally Posted by PFC5

Like that Senator (can't remember his name) stated a few years ago about how ridiculous the staggering budget numbers are said; "A billion dollars here, a billion dollars there. Pretty soon we are talking about real money".

just noticed "the Cable Game" in your sig. Great article,thanks for the link.

[daleb]

Citi-Grope.... I don't know why I said that..somehow or somewhere it just seems to apply.

[PFC5]

Originally Posted by oblioman

just noticed "the Cable Game" in your sig. Great article,thanks for the link.

Thanks.

I thought it was a great article and I was always looking for the link to show people they get nothing extra by paying $150.00 for Monster HDMI cables, so I figured by putting it in my sig it would easy to refer to. It has been there for about 2 years now and I actually forgot I had it there.

[gameguru1360]

Originally Posted by Blckman

No...The economy is not better. Here in California the unemployment rate is 12.2%. Just because the DJI is above 10,000 points doesn't necessarily mean that the economy is better. The GDP(Gross Domestic Product) and consumer spending is supposed to account for 70% of the American economy. Over 11,000,000 in the U.S. as a hole have lost their jobs to various sector. God bless those that can say they have an occupation that will contine to give them a paycheck. When I go in the retail stores I just see people getting their basic essentials. I see some big ticketed items being purchased, but for the most part people are trying to hang on to their pennies. I still see that the rich continue to get the rich and the poor continue to get poor. I'm a big NPR and Public Radio fan. Marketplace.org did a story on Marketplace Money in which they stated that the banks that the Feds bailed out and took over are doing superb. Of coure they are. The Feds bailed them out and CFO and CEO's continue to take billion dollar bonuses at the end of the year after almost coming to the brink of being bankrupt. What a country we have? It has it's pluses and it sure has it's minuses. You bet you the economy is horrible. 1 in 5 household are on the brink foreclosure. Most of those are updside down on their mortgage because the dumb as lenders and banks wrote a blank check. I fault the lender and the buyer. The lender should have disclosed what would happen when that huge double or tripple up payment would go into effect after a certain time. The consumer should have read the contract before signing on the dotted line. There are many people to blame for this economy. Man, I could go on forever. However, I will just stop wrting my book from and economic standpoint. Peace....

people have speculated it'll get better with the nation in general before it gets better in california and for the most part, getting someone to replace Schwarzenegger won't make a difference as California is in a backwards spiral downwards. History has always shown that in California, it takes A LOT longer to recover than the rest of the nation!!