Looks Bad Over There

[Eddiebackblade]

Just returned from a couple of weeks in the Orlando area of Florida.
Been going out there for many years now, but was last there in 2005.
I was genuinely shocked at the downturn over there, from the moment we arrived at our rental home it was obvious that tougher times were upon many.
The estates we stay on are always immaculate, with nice Family homes complete with driveways full of them huge cars and pick ups you have over there!
Not this time! Many homes seemed almost abandoned, with for sale notices everywhere and garage sales at others. It was obvious that many had switched to much smaller cars, and by the look of many properties the Grass cutting contractors will be having a hard time.
The other concern was the complete lack of Heavy Equipment or any real construction projects worth talking about.
It is usually a treat to see some tackle in action over there, but apart from a couple of 30 tonne Komatsu excavators laying pipes there was nothing about.
There seemed a few projects in the Theme Parks, but nothing to keep any fleets of machines moving.
I might of just missed you all this time, but I doubt it and can see the same or worse coming here in the UK.
Nice to see it isn't only the UK press who can talk us all into depression, your News channels seem to thrive on bad news about the economy also.
Sorry to sound so negative, but it came as a real shock how bad things seem over there.
The bonus for me was that the petrol was ridiculously cheap, the Sales at the Malls unbelievable and I got a Turkey dinner a month early! ( Whats that Thanksgiving all about then?)
I sincerely hope that things pick up soon over there. I don't see the point in this dead space you seem to have when changing Presidents, get him in the seat and working now. Maybe then the focus will be on solutions to your economic problems, not who gets tickets to his swearing in ceremony!

 

[EddieWalker]

The slow times seem to be more localized then the media is willing to report. Here in my part of the country, we're building like crazy, and I'm turning down work. While it's fairly common to hear people blame the "economy" for a company failing, the compitition of those failing companies are doing great. I worked for Airborne Express for awhile and was a Union Steward for 8 years. We saw the turn of that company when they went to low profit service and away from the lowest priced overnight service in the industry. Somebody got the idea to compete with UPS. Price of stock droped to nothing and DHL bought them out. Now DHL is even worse and has been losing billions since the buyout. All of a sudden, they blame the "economy" for their dumb decisions and lack of customer support, instead of taking care of their clients and providing the service that allowed the company to grow 20% a year before trying to become UPS. Of course, UPS and Fed Ex are doing fine and showing a nice profit during this so called "economy." The same is true with the "Big 3" auto makers. They have been running their companies into the ground, both by making inferior products that nobody wants to buy, paying rediculous saleries ($54 an hour on the assembly line) and even paying 80% of wages to stay home and not work. The economy isn't the problem there, it's the mentality that they can throw money away and rely on the government to bail them out.

Eddie

 

[joispoi]

Recessions come in waves. They don´t hit everyone the same way or all at the same time. And yes, the poorly run companies drop first.

It also depends where the money in your area comes from. You´ve got your local economy which circulates money within itself. But in order for the local economies to remain healthy, there must be a continuous inflow of cash from an outside source (oil, mining, financial sector, manufacturing, etc.)

Many are hurting today because bad lending practices were contributing too much to the economy.

Some economists say that you can predict a recession by the number of construction projects going on. An unusual amount of construction usually means spec construction. If these projects don´t sell, there won´t be many new projects.