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.
I have been keeping an eye on the recent equity rallies, and I want to tell investors that I think they should remain a little bit cautious at this time. History is replete with liquidity-driven rallies within recessions that ultimately fail. I want to see the beginning of a long-term secular, sustainable bull market, and I do not have all the confirming signs of that right now.
We need to figure out if we are simply witnessing a short-term bear market rally or the beginning of a long-term bull market.
Let’s look to history for some patterns
The deeper the initial drop in stocks, the bigger the bounce. History shows that stock rallies are fairly frequent in the middle of a recession. It also shows that they often get smacked down. Right now, we are experiencing the biggest Read the rest of this entry »
Today I was pleased to stand alongside Florida business leaders in a grassroots effort to help Floridians save money. Together we unveiled the Florida Backyard Card, a money-saving incentive for Floridians to spend their money wisely and locally.
Through the Florida Backyard Card, hundreds of businesses across Florida are offering incentives for their customers with benefits reaching beyond discounts and values.
The State of Florida is pleased to join the coalition of businesses rewarding customers through the Florida Backyard Card. With support from the Florida Lottery, the Backyard Card will be available at lottery retailers across the state. In addition, VISIT FLORIDA is managing www.FloridaBackyardCard.com, where consumers can download a card and search for the best deals in their backyard.
At www.FloridaBackyardCard.com, Floridians can enter their zip code and search for participating businesses to save on apparel, restaurants, groceries, home improvement, vacation rentals and many more goods and services.
When Floridians spend with local businesses, their dollars go to employee wages, building rent, utilities and state and local taxes which support schools and emergency services. Every purchase impacts our economy. In fact, 75 percent of Florida’s gross domestic product comes from consumer spending.
I am personally urging Floridians to go out today and get a backyard card from Florida lottery retailers across the state or online atwww.FloridaBackyardCard.com.
I already have mine and plan to use it well to help boost our economy.
U.S. data show growth still slowing, inflation in check
Nissan to sell $1.3 billion in auto-backed debt
IMF, OECD cut growth forecasts
BOJ boosts bond purchases
U.S. stocks and Treasuries gained ground this week as investors cheered the U.S. Federal Reserve Board’s plan to buy $1 trillion of bonds in an effort to lower consumer borrowing costs and bring an end to the recession. The upward equity move was blunted by week’s end as the Fed’s plan rekindled concerns of inflation, and those worries drove the dollar sharply lower and the price of gold higher. Read the rest of this entry »
This week we have been celebrating Sunshine Week – recognizing Florida’s open government laws. We serve the people of Florida with openness and transparency every day. However, every year during this week, we strive to find new ways to make state and local government more accessible to the public. To achieve this goal, today we launched a new Web site,www.FlaRecovery.com.
As you know, these are challenging times for our nation and for our state. Yet, I believe that Florida will weather this storm as we have weathered storms in the past. Brighter days are ahead. We know people are hurting, and that is why I am grateful for Florida’s fair share of the federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.
Just like you, my wife and I are outraged at the bonus payments made to present and former officials at American Insurance Group, more commonly referred to as AIG (or as it will become known: Ain’t It Great?)
The outrage is understandable. Taxpayers (without a vote on the matter) get to fork over some $170 billion (that’s BILLION, with a B, folks) to bailout a company whose conglomerate Ponzi scheme worked little better than little ol’ Bernie Madoff’s one-man backroom operation.
Here’s the rub for me, the $170 billion — or to paraphrase Barry Goldwater, “A billion here a billion there and pretty soon you are talking real money.” — is money the U.S government said it had to give to AIG to “bail them out” because they were so deep in hock and and so big we couldn’t afford to allow them to fail. Read the rest of this entry »
Ronnie Winter of Red Jumpsuit Apparatus performs in Alabama in December.
I see where the red-hot band The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus is planning a benefit concert to help raise money for band uniforms for Middleburg High School, which many of the group’s members attended.
This is an exciting idea on several levels. It benefits the school, it gives exposure to a worthy cause and it could be the catalyst for other home-grown celebrities to come to the aid of the cash-strapped education system in Clay County.
Consider the possibilities.
1. Country music legend Tim McGraw’s family was living in Middleburg when he was born. Do you think he could sell out the Clay County fairgrounds arena Read the rest of this entry »
Just a few random thoughts this week about topics in general. I am recovering from a dastardly chest cold that has short-circuited my brain cells, so there is really not much of a creative effort going on up there this week (as if there ever is.) That accounts for the lack of new content on the site, which is a definite handicap for a one-person operation.
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I have a favor to ask of you. If you are so inclined, go to
and cast a vote for a photo I posted (seen here) of Rusty the wonder beagle. I took the photo at Christmas and as you can plainly see, Rusty wasn’t very fond of the antler horns. I could never get a photo of him
Please vote for Rusty the wonder beagle. See details in story.
actually wearing the horns but his expression is just too priceless. So, vote if your can or will and I will gladly share with you a portion of the winnings (a $25 gift card). Depending on how many of you take me up on it, we could be talking of no more than a stick of gum apiece.
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Speaking of cheap, did you hear about the price of a share of CitiGroup the other day? Around $1. Boy, was I tempted to pull our money out of the safety and security of my investment portfolio (talk about an oxymoron) and buy some of that cheap paper. Then I decided, no, I would just buy a Coke instead, since that is about all that was left after last year’s roller-coaster ride in the stock market. I am going to leave it to smarter people than me to figure out how to handle this mess, but I guarantee you I am not throwing good money after bad (if you get my drift, President Obama).
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I am glad to see that saner heads have prevailed in some of the school-based decisions on which teachers to cut after the Read the rest of this entry »
For those of you who are no email buddies of our governor, here are the remarks he made today in his state of the state address.
By Gov. Charlie Crist
For the nearly 20 million people who choose to call Florida home, to not just raise their children and build their businesses, but to truly live out their dreams; the future is now.
The strength of our state and national economies are being tested in ways not seen in decades: unemployment is at a 16-year high. We are in a national housing crisis and foreclosures continue to rise; businesses are shutting their doors in the communities they have long served; and a weakened Wall Street has left us in a credit crunch that is cutting into hardworking families’ nest eggs and Read the rest of this entry »
posted
Sep 24, 2009 by Lamar Thames
