This gum tree towered nearly 300 feet within 10 feet of the back of my house.

By LAMAR THAMES

I have a confession to make. I am a big woosy. That probably isn’t surprising to those of you who know me, but let me explain.

Recently, I have had to hire two contractors for major work around my house. Both were going to cost a significant amount of money (at least to me) and the prospect scared me to death. I didn’t want to make a mistake in hiring either one of them, but I didn’t have any personal experience with doing it. Thus my dilemma.

The first chore was to pick a roofing contractor. Over the years, I have had to pay several thousand dollars for minor repairs to the old roof caused by falling limbs from a giant gum tree in the backyard. The most recent repair was going to be about $1,500. My wife and I decided to have the roof replaced instead, since it was nearly 17 years old and showing signs of wear.

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Lamar Thames

Now that the  Great Recession is officially over (according to newspaper headlines and television reports, at least), I just want to know one thing: WHERE IS MY JOB?

I understand it will take some time for the unemployed to return to work. I just hope it is sooner rather than for a lot of people. I honestly don’t think I will be able to return to the workforce anytime soon, however. There is the age thing, a lack of qualifications and, well, just the time it will take for the job market to rebound to anything resembling a healthy economy.

Thankfully, I was able to draw unemployment (which may be extended another 13 weeks), so the blow might not have affected my wife and I as much as it did others.

Like I have said before, and news reports are confirming, there are some silver linings to the dark side of the recession. Such as, laid-off construction workers are adapting to different lines of work, prices are coming down (grocers and restaurants are offering considerable discounts) and the nation’s per-person savings rate has more than doubled in the past year.

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This is a weekly review of financial markets from MFS.

For the week ended January 9, 2009

• 524,000 jobs lost in December; 2.6 million for the year
• Unemployment hits 7.2%
• Christmas retail sales suffer
• More layoffs announced

More bad economic news piled up this week as the U.S. Department of Read the rest of this entry »

24 THINGS ABOUT TO BECOME EXTINCT IN AMERICA

        Submitted by Annette:

24. Yellow Pages — This year will be pivotal for the global Yellow Pages industry. Much like newspapers, print Yellow Pages will continue to bleed dollars to their various digital counterparts, from Internet Yellow Pages (IYPs), to local search engines and combination search/listing services like Reach Local and Yodle Factors like an acceleration of the print ‘fade rate’ and the looming recession will contribute to the onslaught. One research firm predicts the falloff in usage of newspapers and print Yellow Pages could even reach 10 percent this year, much higher than the 2%-3% fade rate seen in past years.

23. Classified Ads — The Internet has made so many things obsolete that newspaper classified ads might sound like just another trivial item on a long list. But this is one of those harbingers of the future that could signal the end of civilization as we know it. The argument is that if newspaper classifieds are replaced by free online listings at sites like Craigslist.org and Google Base, then newspapers are not far behind them. Read the rest of this entry »

In the immortal words of Peter Finch in the movie “Network,” Are you mad as hell and not going to take it any more?

I hope so because I am. My rage has been building for a few weeks now but it is about ready to explode. Especially considering the news that the Securities and Exchange Commission failed to pursue allegations of wrongdoing against good ol’ Bernie Madoff, the financial wizard who has managed to squander an estimated $50 billion (that’s BILLION, folks, with 10 zeroes) of other people’s money in what now appears to be a Ponzi scheme of gigantic magnitude. Read the rest of this entry »

Amid all the economic turmoil, there was good news on Tuesday, Dec. 16. The Federal Reserve reduced its top interest to near zero, or .25 percent, for its biggest customers. That news boosted the stock market by 360 points to 8924.

Will that good news translate into good news for consumers? Only time will tell. If you are looking to refinance your mortgage, this might be a good time to do that. Financial planners have said that interest rates on annuities are going to be reduced in mid-January, so now might be the time to lock in some of those higher rates if you have some maneuverability in your investment portfolio. Read the rest of this entry »