by Jack Lee
Are you glad to see this year over? I sure am, and I hope 2009 will be better! We can always [hope] and at the same time [work] to make it better.
We sure need hope too, as in, I “hope” the State of California finds some money soon, because in March of 09 we’re broke! If there is a bright side to this state’s financial crisis it’s that the first IOU’s instead of paychecks will go to our legislators who got us in the fix.
I also “hope” the looming $42 billion deficit bill our wonderful legislators created will not be passed on to us in the form of higher taxes, but it probably will. In fact that part has already started even though they are calling them fees… it’s still a tax and it still comes out of your budget.
On the national level, we should all be “hoping” this recession doesn’t turn into a depression because right now we’re being told to brace for worse to come and it looks like it could be a lot worse. We’re warned that life as we knew it will never be quite the same again, times are going to be tougher, less of everything. That’s what happens when thousands of retail stores close, oh well, I can live without a Starbuck’s on every corner, but I’ll miss Linens-In-Things, Sharper Image, Circuit City, Mervyns, etc.
The International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC) said 148,000 stores were closed in 2008 and they project that 73,000 stores during the first half of 2009? Then we have the Big 3 in Detroit hovering over the edge of a cliff, held up by bilion dollar balloons.
Remember the old saying, “As General Motors goes, so goes the nation,” let us “hope” we as a nation fare better than GM!
2008 saw a massive wave of home foreclosures and 09 will see the second wave start thanks to speculative (investment grade) home loans done with those real low teaser rates. These contracts begin rolling out to higher rates in 09 and 10. Let us “hope” you don’t have one of those loans or if you do, that you have very deep pockets!!
The home foreclosures have kept a glut of cheap homes on the market and this has caused retail home prices to continue to decline. To exacerbate this already dire situation even qualified buyers can’t get a loan unless it’s an expensive FHA type because the banks are basically broke. The ol’ cash flow is all but dried up. And throughout 2008, the news was often punctuated with, “and these numbers are the worst since the Great Depression….” What a year it’s been.
In the Middle East the New Year will be ushered in on the backs of bombs dropping in Gaza and rockets falling into Israel. Doesn’t look like the Taliban has satisfied their blood lust either. Which means were in for more troops deployed, more war, and more casualties in this lousy outhouse of a country that can’t seem to produce anything except heroin and terrorists. In the same war-torn neighborhood, Iranian’s show no indication of backing off their plan for nuclear weapons development; well, there’s another huge problem that will be handed off to Mr. Obama. Oh, and recent events seem to be pushing India and Pakistan into a war, each side armed with nuclear weapons. How’s your hope holding up so far? Yeah, mine too.
I was going to list those people ripped off by Bernie Madoff, but enough already! Let me sum it up like this, about the only famous person not to have been swindled by Madoff is Osama Bin Laden. Lucky Osama, guess things are really going his way and for all his wives in the Tora Bora’s or wherever he’s vacationing these days.
2008….hit the gate, we’ll see ya in 2009…oh, and dare I even say it? Have a happy New Year! ( C’mon it’s gotta get better eventually! )