The Real Recovery | January 04, 2010 | 5 comments

2010: Same sh*t, different year? - Real Recovery

source: http://blogs.current.com/news/2010/01/04/2010-same-sht-different-year-real-recovery/

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afitzgerald
It's the first day back at work in the New Year and the question on my mind is "Are things finally going to get better?" Well, unfortunately, a year's end is a pretty artificial time marker. And it seems the economy knows that.

According to speakers at the annual American Economic Association conference prospects for a big recovery anytime soon are bleak. "'It will be difficult to have a robust recovery while housing and commercial real estate are depressed,' said Martin Feldstein, a Harvard University professor and former head of the National Bureau of Economic Research." Additionally, national unemployment is still at 10% (as of the end of November, albeit with a slight dip from the previous month).

But come on, it's the first Monday of the New Year. Let's not get all pessimistic yet! Wall Street (though I don't think it's a good economic indicator) jumped 1.5% today.

What other signs are you seeing out there? Optimistic or pessimistic? Give us your 2010 predictions and the small signals you're seeing where you live.

FROM THE NEWS BLOG: http://blogs.current.com/news/2010/01/04/2010-same-sht-different-year-real-recov...

SOURCES: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6021LK20100103
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/05/business/05markets.html
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5 comments // 2010: Same sh*t, different year? - Real Recovery

  • DeliaTheArtist
    • 0
      DeliaTheArtist  

    • Why should we doom ourselves to an expectation of the future already? If you think you are going to have a bad year, you probably are...maybe we have to start thinking about recovery in a different way- not simply restoring the systems that are already in place, but using creativity to develop new markets that can thrive in this environment.

    • 2 years ago
  • Ihatethemall
    • 0
      Ihatethemall  

    • What other signs am I seeing you ask? Well lets do transportation because that has been my business for 25 years. I am not an expert but I have "loads" ( pun intended) of experiance. I get the numbers from a major railroad EVERY DAY. The use a 7 day car loading rate. So every day the numbers change. They like to see the numbers at 200,000 in the last 7 days. That makes it possible to pay shareholders and still make upgrades and repairs and give raises to employees. That is what they like their average to be. They havent been above 175,000 in 2 years and they are sitting at an average of 160,000 right now on a good day. These are the numbers I recieved today----------

      Carloadings for:7-day totals 132,955
      Sunday, 1/03 13,852
      Saturday, 1/02 12,926
      Friday, 1/01 8,136
      Thursday, 12/31 18,218
      Wednesday, 12/30 27,607
      Tuesday, 12/29 25,350
      Monday, 12/28 26,866
      Now the numbers will go up a bit as soon as the January 1st gets taken out of the mix. That day is obviously a bit low because of the holiday but even if it goes up 20,000 which is quite a huge jump the numbers will still be sitting at 150,000 or so. They still have 4,000 or so engineers laid off and still have some 2,000 engines and 50,000 box cars in long term storage because they have no use for them. No one is shipping. If it werent for the coal shipments the numbers would be cut in half. Half of the trains that run today, or dam near it haul coal. I was told that they expect a large dropoff in shipments right after the first of the year. More than the normal dropoff is. Should be an interesting year.

      These numbers are public knowledge and can easily be checked through the proper railway magizines and publications.

    • 2 years ago
  • Possible_Reality
    • 0
      Possible_Reality  

    • We're not suddenly gonna snap into prosperity.

      Personally I think Americans should learn from this economic disaster. when it happened in the '30s and '80s we didn't change. We're wasteful and careless with our money. We keep allowing this shinanigans to occur. I don't think things are really gonna change till we fully understand HOW TO MANAGE OUR MONEY EFFEICENTLY

    • 2 years ago
  • Pedroptz
  • afitzgerald
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