As the recession continues I’ve often wondered about the personal suffering that is undoubtedly happening in homes across the country. What are the conversations as families sit around the dinner table? For those people in the 10%+ group that are out of work with few prospects for a paycheck any time soon, are they suffering? If so, how are they suffering? In our neighborhood, my
I absolutely love this video. Louis CK pretty much nails it. As bad as things might seem, things are actually pretty good. Just a bit of humor to keep things in perspective:
MSNBC has a feature on their website that lets you check the health of your bank or credit union. I took a look at my credit union and found that they have a troubled asset ratio of 18. That’s actually pretty good. There are over 389 banks (as of Dec 31 2009) that had a troubled asset ratio of over 100 which means that they
It’s been a tough week. There’s really no other way to put it. Layoffs at work have hit closer to home than they ever have before and the overall mood in the office is absolutely horrible. Since last Friday I’ve been slowly hearing about many friends and really good employees that have been given their layoff slips. Why? Because the company has decided to try
In a sign that not all people are capitalistic monsters, Bob Moore, the founder of Bob’s Red Mill in Oregon, has decided to give his company to the 209 employees that work there. Bob could have sold the company for a large sum of money but decided that money isn’t everything. WOW! Bob has turned down a number of buyout offers over the years and
Yahoo has an article up that shows how much customer misery there is out there with the big banks. Check out these stats: The report, Forrester’s annual Customer Advocacy rankings, ranks nearly 50 financial services firms in the United States by the percentage of each firm’s customers who agree with the statement: "My financial provider does what’s best for me, not just its own bottom
Today I was browsing through the homes for sale in my general area (after work) and came upon a really nice looking place that is exactly the kind of property I’ve always wanted. It was relatively close to the city but had a very definite “country†feel to it. The house sits on about 1 acre of land, is about 3600 square feet (way too
If you are craving a burger and fries from Denny’s (Not sure if that’s possible), you can get a free burger and fries if you are one of the first 500,000 people to sign up for their Rewards program. You’ll also be entered for a chance to win 52 free Grand Slams. From what I hear, the lines at Denny’s were crazy today. I know
I’ve read more than a couple articles predicting gloom and doom for the commercial real estate industry. Many are concerned with an impending collapse of the commercial real estate market and what that is going to do to the many banks that have billions in loans supporting it. Not being an expert on anything related to the subject, all I could do was ponder whether
I was absolutely shocked to see that low end house prices in my area have come way down. It’s possible to buy a house for $125,000 that is in relatively good condition. The cheapest house that was available during the peak of the real estate market was over $200,000. Prices are getting to the point that, with $25,000 down, we could acquire a rental property
