[Audio-Omega]

I have been hearing "we have no money" at work since 2008 or earlier.  However the current crisis hasn't affected me yet.  I think jobs in security and aged care are in demand at present.  The best thing to do right now is to be frugal and buy the best food you can afford, not the best headphones.  

 
May be it's not a bad idea to bury some cash in your yard because banks aren't too stable.  Gold is not a bad investment but one day water will be more precious.  

 

[KneelJung]

Interesting thread Elysian. I dont know how you can keep politics out of it when in the long run the fundamental problems of both the national economy and the global economy are political in nature. I'd really like to hear the perceptions and impressions of people in the EU too as it seems countries from the EU have some serious obstacles to overcome. While countries like Brazil and India are expanding.
 
My economic situation has changed drastically. Some of it based on bad choices I made in my personal life, and some of it based on the overall economy. I used to work in the industry that gets most of the blame for the 08 financial meltdown. I worked in the mortgage industry first as a broker then as an AE for a lender. The Company I worked for as an AE, closed it's doors around Easter of 07. The whole mess was documented daily on mortgage implode.com. as lender after lender closed it's doors. We had probably 100 to 120 people working in 10,000 sq. ft of office space wnen they came in laid off evryone but the sales staff. I still had a job technically because I was part of the sales staff, but there was nothing really to sell and no market for what was left. Plus going into a 10,000 sq. foot office devoid of your co-workers and the usual hustle and bustle was extremely depressing. All of it of course was a precursor to everything blowing up the following fall.
 
Personally I dont think we have emerged from the shadows of those events at all. IMO the situation and the processes that started then are still in play. Both Europe and the US have way to much debt both public and private to be able to extricate themselves from it gracefully. All the unemployment in a consumer based economy is a big problem. People cant consume and drive an economy without the meaans to do so. Which means America needs to get back to work but where are those jobs going to come from when the job creators are either not hiring because a lack of demand or hiring over seas. Which is sort of a catch 22 in and of itself. Where is the demand supposed to come from if people dont have jobs and income to create that demand?

 

[Happy Camper]

The medical construction projects that got yanked has increased competition for what is available. My business has been cut by 60% or more for the last 4 years. This year is showing signs of some recovery but mostly in the remodel area. New projects are still lagging and I don't see that changing until the US Healthcare issue is resolved.

Just have to live within your means and you can survive. Too bad the taxman don't understand.

 

[appophylite]

Personally, hasn't affected me too badly. In the beginning, I took a bit of a pay cut, and we lost several people (company fired them), so now, when an existing person gets sick and can't come to work in the field, we have to run around trying to figure out who will have to come to work to make ends meet. On the whole though, I mostly did like Uncle Erik. Changed my spending/saving figures and tweaked them for existing circumstances, re-arranged investment portfolios and all in all, I haven't really lost much or gained much in the last couple of years.

 

[ph0rk]

I've not cut back overmuch but as a grad student I haven't had much to cut back to begin with.
 
I've been aiming for austerity since 2003 and other than the occasional slip generally quite happy with it.
 
 
Selling stuff off feels so much better than acquiring new stuff.

 

[Elysian]

Quote:

Interesting thread Elysian. I dont know how you can keep politics out of it when in the long run the fundamental problems of both the national economy and the global economy are political in nature. I'd really like to hear the perceptions and impressions of people in the EU too as it seems countries from the EU have some serious obstacles to overcome. While countries like Brazil and India are expanding.
 

I think you're probably right about the discussion.  My fear with politics/economics discussions is that they end up getting very polarizing, but I suppose there are more sensitive topics which regularly get discussed here.  I think we should open it up, though, if anyone is interested in an open discussion on macroeconomics and policies
 
I think you've cut to the heart of the problem the US is facing, and that no one seems to have a clear answer to.  It seems most people agree that it's healthy for a country to have a certain proportion of debt (corporations do it all the time to manage risk and accelerated growth), but it's unclear at what point does outside investment become an albatross, even for the largest economy in the world.  We still seem to have no real plan to get our current spending to net zero (coupled with our interest/loan obligations).  From what the CEOs of Fortune 50s and small businesses are saying, they're not looking for tax cuts or hiring incentives, but rather the simple matter is that there just isn't enough demand out there for them to expand hiring and manufacturing/services.  There's a lot of contention as to why demand has flattened out, which is fueling a lot of the angry debates, but it seems like the way things will shake out is that one party had its chance to try its policies, the other party will get its shot in 2 years, and then the truly scary thing is if both parties have the wrong answer.
 
Everyone's stories are both interesting and sobering, and I'm glad people feel comfortable with being so frank about their situations.  We've tried to curtail our spending, too, from less eating out and going out for entertainment, to more coupon clipping and rebate hunting, and trying to make old, used stuff (clothing, appliances) stretch out longer.  The thing seems to be that many of us seem like we're just treading water, and I'm worried whether a 401k will stop making financial sense, or if this is just another market downturn, albeit longer and deeper than past ones.

 

[mark2410]

as someone sort of in the EU i cant say ive really seen much impact.  while i have heard friends talk of redundancys at their employers i dont know anyone who was directly affected by these things.  if anything people i know took advantage of it by buying property.
 
however the universities in the city have been shedding staff and saying its all down to their funding being cut.  i cant help but also notice they have all gone on huge building sprees so im inclined to think they and im sure others have used the "poor economy" as an excuse to get rid of people.

 

[bcasey25raptor]

Thing is guys if you cut spending and refuse to buy new stuff the economy will get worse. A consumer based economy like ours requires people to buy products made by the workers to keep the economy working. If things are manufactured and nobody buys them then the manufacturers will lose their jobs. If no one manufactures merchandise there will be no variety. Companies will go bankrupt and the economy will grind to a halt. If anything, if we have the money we should spend more. I don't know about any of you but i would much prefer the economy gets better and people gain jobs instead of losing them.

 

[Scott_Tarlow]

I'm about to know how badly the economy has affected me. I'm applying to Geoscience graduate school for next fall..... where all the funding comes from the government or oil companies.... I hope I won't have to work for the oil companies to do what I love to do. 

 

[Niyologist]

It's taken a toll on my chances on being hired, BUT I already know that I have those jobs I applied for. 

 

[rawrster]

I think it affected me quite a bit coming out of college although that's not 100% to blame. It's been hard to get a job in my field (actually down right impossible for entry level) as my gpa isn't the greatest although I do have enough exams to get me a job in the actuarial field. I have been finding work in other places by either going temp or in unrelated fields just to have something and a source of income. I haven't been able to find a job in my field but luckily I found employment albeit temporary elsewhere.
 
Some of my friends have been taking whatever jobs they can get, going back to school, temp, etc. I do work in a place that deals with trying to find people jobs and it's been tough for a lot of them since there are good people that are without jobs who probably would have gotten hired had this been a better economy. However there's also those bums who are just looking for a handout but that's a different story all together

 

[BobSaysHi]

My father is a freelance photographer (photographs advertisements for magazines and the internet) and he's been forced to work out of town for the past three years. That work has dried up and he's been unemployed for the past several months.
 
His struggle to find work in the creative (well, semi-creative) field is the main reason I don't want the same thing for myself. I'd like to be an engineer, but who knows if that'll happen.

 

[koryuuu]

Personally, I think my family has been affected but no one ever told me anything about it.
 
I just graduated from university and am currently working right now. When I was younger, my family would always go abroad every summer or so but maybe around 2005 or so, we stopped doing that. I was sad that we didn't get to go out but I was still young-ish (well, high school =/ ) so I didn't think much of it. When I went off to uni, I was offered a scholarship for the rest of my uni days (including grad school if I wanted to go for it) but i didn't accept it since I preferred going to another school. Since my parents allowed me to, I figured we still had enough money. But after graduating from uni and helping out in our store, I noticed the customers were few and far between and when I talked to my aunt (who works in the store), she told me that times really were hard and our store was barely afloat. *Also, the tuition in our national school increased by 100% or so around 2006*
 
So I felt guilty :|
 
But well, as for jobs, hmm. I had a hard time looking for a job and in fact, only one company gave me an offer. I don't think it's because of my academical merit because companies here don't always ask for a transcript and when they give tests (IQ tests or whatever), I always get high scores. As for my friends, well a lot of them (me included) fell in the banking/FI industry, whether or not they wanted to. I think the only reason they hired us was because we're from one of the top schools.
 
So I suppose my batchmates and I were/are affected but we're mostly lucky because our parents didn't make us change our lifestyles and now that we're working, we feel more the value of money.

 

[Niyologist]

Any suggestions to make the debt fade half way through?

 

[wind016]

 
Quote:

I think it affected me quite a bit coming out of college although that's not 100% to blame. It's been hard to get a job in my field (actually down right impossible for entry level) as my gpa isn't the greatest although I do have enough exams to get me a job in the actuarial field. I have been finding work in other places by either going temp or in unrelated fields just to have something and a source of income. I haven't been able to find a job in my field but luckily I found employment albeit temporary elsewhere.
 
Some of my friends have been taking whatever jobs they can get, going back to school, temp, etc. I do work in a place that deals with trying to find people jobs and it's been tough for a lot of them since there are good people that are without jobs who probably would have gotten hired had this been a better economy. However there's also those bums who are just looking for a handout but that's a different story all together

I know what you're feeling. It sucks! If another recession hits, holy hell!