I am not and it isnt even close. Our 2009 business was off 40% from 2008 which was off 30% from 2007. 5 years ago we were producing twice the volume. Our smaller competitors have closed shop and even as we pick up their slack overall business is still falling. We are taking jobs we would never have touched before just to keep people working. All my friends, especially those self employed, are also in worse shape. Everyone is hanging on by a thread having to work twice as hard to maintain low levels of income.
This is what I see and hear daily. For me, 2008 was 34% less than 2007. 2009 was 28% less than 2008. 2010 isn't looking good. What's sad is the fact that each year has brought added responsibility and an increased workload. I'm in banking, and those of us still employed are just happy to still have jobs. No one is making close to the money they were in 2003-2007.
first of all, those of you that know me, know that i am a moderate. i dont scream about republicans and i dont scream about democrats. because when i used to work in campaigns, i worked for candidates in both parties. i went with the person whose ideals were closest to mine. the candidate that i most believed in, i worked for in a couple of campaigns. once, as a volunteer, when he was running for governor as a republican. and once, as paid campaign staff, when he was running for governor as a democrat. he was very moderate and although made it to the primary run-off each time, was defeated in the run-off because he was too moderate for either extreme in each party. and i still believe he would have made a great governor. that said.... i am better off than financially than in was 5 years ago. and i am a small business owner. some of that is due to steps we took a couple of years ago to increase business. but this past year, those changes were already fully in place for a year so nothing changed the way we did business and we still grew. i dont have the percentage of growth yet, we are still crunching the numbers (i should have that hopefullly in the next week to 10 days). point being, I was nervous as hell going into the 2009 season. nervous enough that when i thought about the financial catastrophe that was waiting for me if we had a bad year, i would get sick at my stomach. but we had not only a good year, but a growth year. to the point we have just hired and are training a new employee. we had to or we were gonna kill each other because the stress of things getting stacked up on us. anyway, that's a further explanation to my answer of "i am" to salty's question. edit to add: i sometimes wonder about how different my life would be if the candidate i worked for as staff would be if he had won the office of governor (as a moderate democrat). i knew going into the runoff that if he won the office, i had my pick of either permanent campaign fund raising staff, or in his office as an aide. a big difference from being the small business owner i am now.
Two observations. One - the housing "boom" was considered economic expansion in that market until folks understood the underlying factors driving it. In other words - this growth may or may not be good news. Depends on whether it's manipulated by the government, or a result of the business cycle and a recovering market system. Two - posts made after the very first (and not very impressive) bit of good news are actually more indicative of how BAD things are than how good they are becoming. So - I'm gonna wait to see how high my taxes have to go to sustain (what I perceive to be) government controlled "growth".
I am an Obama kinda guy in lieu of the non-existent Republican candidate. But I can be swayed to the best candidate in a NY second!! Having stated that, and having studied macro-econ right much, those numbers are little more than a soundbite. You can just look at the want adds, the closed doors, the empty big box stores. The economy by most real world measures affecting most real world people is still awful. Let there be no doubt about that. hwr
I'm much better off than I was five years ago but much worse off than I was two years ago. I'm very curious to see where I'll be in five years though.
Second bit of good news. the first was positive GDP growth in the 3rdQ that ended the recession. O had it right about the "lost decade". its hard to dismiss the huge positive effect of the housing bubble on the overall economy.
:huh: Thousands of folks being encouraged to borrow more than they can afford because it's their "right" to own a home? Foreclosures. Banks folding. This is positive? I don't care who caused it (although I know exactly who caused it). The housing bubble was to the economy as Halloween in a wealthy neighborhood is to a fat kid. Gratifying in the short term, harmful overall.
