Comments on: Is The Economy Finally Starting To Turn?

By: Mitch

Mitch — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 23:04:20 +0000

From your mouth to our pockets, eh John?

By: John Dilbeck

John Dilbeck — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 18:19:44 +0000

I agree. I think we’re all scrambling.

Who knows, maybe we’ll come up with something that will get us through the hard times and help us prosper when things turn around.

By: Mitch

Mitch — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 15:19:18 +0000

Thanks John. I know about small businesses looking for other ways of bringing new income; trust me on that one. The signs are somewhat hopeful, but I also don’t believe many of those jobs lost are coming back any time soon. So I hope people are also keeping their options open on new ways to make money themselves.

By: John Dilbeck

John Dilbeck — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 13:02:30 +0000

Good morning, Mitch.

I, too, appreciate the upbeat post.

I feel that we’re in the early stages of the recovery.

I’m a fairly bright guy, but I don’t claim to understand the bigger issues and I think everyone is better off that I don’t have to make any of the decisions that have been forced upon government officials over the last year.

I don’t agree that government involvement necessarily means incompetent leadership and/or decisions. I think it was necessary, and I hope it doesn’t last too long.

But, I can’t argue any of these points on their merits and I don’t have facts to back up my gut feeling.

In my area of the country, there are practically no jobs available. There are only a few large employers and most people work for very small businesses. They are not rehiring at this point, but I’m not seeing the cutbacks we saw last fall.

I’m watching as these small business owners scramble to find new ways to generate income, and some of them are returning to the basics. They’re treating their current customer base as well as they can, and those valued customers are continuing to do business with them. Several of these business owners have told me that their business is finally picking up, and I hope that’s true all around the country.

Although the big companies get the headlines, it’s the small companies that provide most of the jobs.

I’m hoping you’re right. I’m ready for things to turn around and get better for all of us.

All the best,

John Dilbecks last blog post..Why do blogs have a higher failure rate than restaurants?

By: Mitch

Mitch — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 16:15:18 +0000

I appreciate the long comment, Justin! lol I know there’s lots of foreclosed homes on the market, but those homes were there in February also, and no one was buying them (hyperbole, I know). Now suddenly people are ready to buy, which means there’s less fear. And, big news today, of sorts, Walmart is about to hire 22,000 people. Who else is announcing they’re hiring even 100?

I like trying to find something positive here and there; I’m ready for a break out!

By: Justin

Justin — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 13:33:12 +0000

Mitch, I appreciate the upbeat post! It’s hard to find anything positive to read these days. I have to admit that I, like IS, have some real concerns with the government getting involved in business like this. Sure they claim that they aren’t running the companies, but the reality is that they pretty much are. The government now controls the boards at some of these companies and I can’t imagine that their involvement won’t just make things more inefficient.

I am right there with you on the positive signs though. The last few weeks have really been the first time that we’ve seen any sort of consistent positive news and stats in over a year. I strongly feel that things have “bottomed-out” so to speak and recovery is in the very early stages. I think we will continue to see far fewer major layoffs, but I don’t expect the job market to come roaring back anytime soon.

Housing also seems to be finding something of a bottom as first time homebuyers are finally stepping up to take advantage of the awesome $8K tax credit. One thing to keep in mind though is that there are still a TON of foreclosed houses on the market and they are really what is pushing pending sales up. This goes a long way to explain the descrepancy between pending sales and housing starts. We have to get a lot more of these foreclosures sold before prices can fully stabilize.

Sorry for the storybook comment! Here’s to more good news in the coming weeks!

Justins last blog post..Servers Attacked!

By: Mitch

Mitch — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 00:38:25 +0000

That’s a good point, IS. I think the difference here is that the government isn’t necessarily going to be running the companies, though that’s what we keep being told by the press. What the government will control is the board; it’s still going to take business people to run the company and come up with the ideas to change things around. Boards are only there to make sure the company does what it’s supposed to do, that being make a profit. It’ll be interesting to see how things change.

By: Internet Strategist

Internet Strategist — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 22:23:58 +0000

I'm not so sure that incompetent government ownership is any improvement - or even any change - over corporate ownership. Both teach their employees to do as little as possible for fear of making a mistake. Citigroup treated their employees worse than Wal-mart treats theirs. IMHO, all economies are controlled by those who control the money supply. Whether the government or a corporation officially owns them who controls them is unlikely to change. Internet Strategists last blog post..Select Keywords First to Make Your Content Easy to Find