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Vic Smith

On Sat, 24 Oct 2009 19:13:55 -0400, wrote:

That is true but on a double dip recession it trails the second up.
I think we have a more fundamental problem. It is not just that all
those factories are sitting idle, they were dismantled and moved to
Mexico. We used the housing boom to hide the fact that there really is
not that much we actually do here.
For most of the Bush administration anyone who could hold a paintbrush
or swing a hammer had a job, good at it or not.
Unemployment in SW Florida was about 3% overall and less than half a
percent in anyone who claimed any building skills at all. That would
also include a lot of back office type folks who worked in the
construction offices, suppliers and government building departments.
With the factories gone and construction at a standstill I am not sure
where the recovery jobs are going to come from.
Housing inventory in some places is something like a two or three year
supply, built and unsold. Commercial is not in much better shape.

Maybe they should just tear down a bunch of the foreclosure houses,
particularly ones that are not code conforming (wind, earthquake or
flood depending on your area)

My idea that we should have condemned the whole underwater part of New
Orleans, barged in 15-20 feet of dirt and rebuilt it to FEMA specs is
not looking so dumb now huh? It would be a fraction of the $1.2
trillion we are spending on these bailout plans and provided a lot
more jobs than fixing a few bridges.

Sounds like a good plan.
Agree on the jobs being sent offshore.
We were dead and didn't know it. (though I must say I did (-

Zombies propelled by debt and mythical money in real estate and Wall
Street equities.
Hard times ahead for many.

--Vic