Bad Economy

Do you want the bad news or the good news first?

I am not one to harp on the bad, I like to see the upside in things. My mother always told me if you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all. While the economy is giving me nothing to say that is not a bit dark there is some upside. Seems there is a light at the end of the tunnel, and seems it’s a few months away. Maybe a year, but considering how long the last HUGE depression lasted, that ain’t so bad.

LINK :: Fed survey: economy deteriorated in Jan., Feb.

I saw this little nugget of info:

“Looking ahead, business people rated the prospects “for near-term improvement in economic conditions as poor, with a significant pickup not expected before late 2009 or early 2010.””

This to me is a good thing. We needed to adjust a bit and get on with it.

Some more good news today, the stock market around the world was a bit up, which has not been the case os of late.

So what does this all mean? Hell if I know. I am like most of you who want to see the economy come back, people to stop worring all the time and start enjoying life again. It’s bound to happen and Ifor one can’t wait.

I am sure the boys at IBM are looking foward to a recovery so they can dazzle the world with another 10 years of lack luster marketing…..is that dead horse beat sufficently or is IBM just not concerned with thier products in a good or bad economy?

How to ge the Economy on track…..

How to ge the Economy on track…..

While I am not some brilliant economist, you can see that from the title of the blog. I am just one tech guy living in Charlotte who is concerned about the world and the economy right now. I have posted before how much I want to see it turn around fast and I don’t understand how the failures of a few people have impacted the world this much. I also think we had a bit of a perfect storm of things that lead to this. For the most part the damage is done. I don’t think anyone had a silver bullet, ut in my house we don’t increase anything by spending more, we cut back and increase our savings or capital.

I have to wonder how the companies like IBM and HP are dealing with the lack of sales? I also wonder what the world needs right now so that we could get the world out there spending again? What will kick start the economy? I am sure looking back in we will all know what solved it, sadly my crystal ball is broken but I am sure it’s going to start with some big time spending some place. We just need to get back to spending, and not at Wal-Mart, but on a bigger level.

If we think happy thoughts will the economy get better?

If we think happy thoughts will the economy get better?

I am not one to “think happy thoughts” or be positive for the sake of being positive. I do think there is something to it, but it’s a hard pill for me to swallow sometimes. I have to firmly disagree with all the economist and politicians and let them all know they are wrong about the bad economy.

Dead wrong!

Why would I say that? I am a under-educated IT guy from Savannah, GA who scratched and clawed his way in IT over the past 20 years, and not a classically trained economist. I can tell you all this, while there are people who are out of work and there are indicators of some sore spots in the economy. I can provide you this bit of light.

In Charlotte the local malls have been packed. I mean like Christmas time. They are always busy. Either a lot of people are mall walking or there is some economic spending going on. There is a new IKEA in Charlotte and while I know people are excited to see it open and are seeing what it’s all about. There has been a traffic jam in that part of the world for over a week now. You can’t get in and out without a huge wait. They have a shuttle set up to get you to and from.  If the economy were really bad would people be traveling on the weekends? Would they not stay home and conserve?

I think this whole bad economy thing is real, but I have to wonder how much is just between our ears, well at least some between our ears.

I am not trying to po-po the facts, but if we start thinking happy thoughts maybe the economy will come back and we can get back to working hard instead of worrying about if we will have a job tomorrow!

January 2009 - Wrap up and Thoughts

Well January 2009 is over. Time is flying and the economy is not getting much better is it? It’s getting harder to work harder when you are seeing people loose their jobs. I hate it when the economy goes to the crapper. I don’t like it one bit, and the media, in my opinion, is not helping. They are not reporting anything but news that would make a normal well mannered person want to go jump off a bridge. I am not suggesting you do that but why can’t the media report something other than bad bad bad all the time.

We have a running joke in our house when the news is on, you can almost her them saying, if you watch this news your family could die, and we all just laugh. The truth is the media never wants to report the fuzzy, happy, stories. I think it kills them.  I would like to see one day a week when the media does not make me want to turn the news off with all the bad news and do some good news.

I am also tired of companies keeping on CEOs that make millions and all this while the company is tanking and they get to lay off  5000 people. Hey CEO person, cut you and your EXECS salary down to 100K a year and then start cutting jobs. The way I see it we can either fire one $5 million a year EXEC or 300 people. Hummm. I will keep the 300 people who work hard and really need the money and let the one do nothing exec. figure it out. I get tired of hearing about bonuses too from companies that were telling us they needed a hand out 6 months ago and passed out money to retain executives. You have to be kidding me?

I hope the economy comes back soon and I hope all the people I know who don’t have work find some. How can we solve this economic problem. We can spend a little. I really don’t think it’s as bad as the government says it is either. We were out tonight trying to find a place to eat and every place was packed. The shops were packed and the mall was busy. Nothing but big companies seem to be doing bad who miss managed money and kept on to many high payed execs.

I also can’t wait to be in RENO and here what fancy story IBM has worked up as to why the IBM i and POWER Systems sales numbers are all off. Who will they blame? I am sure no System i’ and iSeries servers are coming off lease in 2009, they all somehow came off last year and none of them are going to be delivered this year?  While IBM lays off people they still fail to know how to sell some of the best hardware in the business. Funny DELL and HP are figuring it out and they are putting Windows onto their server and they still sell? What is the IBM i missing that it can’t seem to fly of the shelves at IBM? Sales staff? NO! Price? Maybe? Commitment from IBM? Maybe? A one sentence tag line? YES? How about CIOs and IT Managers who undrstand it and can order it today and get it next week? YES, we need that.

Why can’t I order an IBM i from IBM today and get it by next Friday? WHY?

You don’t have to answer I know it already and plan to ask it in RENO!

What bad ecconomy?

So I keep hearing about this bad ecconomy and keep looking around wondering if it’s not just a bad housing market and the rest of the ecconomy is fine. Sure there are some bad signs out there that point to “doom & gloom” but I was out in Charlotte last weekend and the malls were all packed, the shops were full, people were out driving, and it was a mess to be honest.

I saw this in the paper and have to wonder if the media has not created some of these ecconomic problems, and while the “bail-outs” don’t seem to be helping we keep seeing record sales and such from other sectors?

Link :: Worker dies at Long Island Wal-Mart after being trampled in Black Friday stampede

It is sad when anyone dies, but the mad rush of people to go shopping is nuts. I think people who lived through the great depression are thinking the same thing, no one stood in line for toys and electronics during the depression, and I would submit we are not in one right now either.

This can’t be good - SUN to lay off 6000 employees

It’s not going to be easy to get throught this hard economic time. Sadly SUN was not in a position I think to survive it anyway. They have been on the bubble for years. I wish all the empoyees who got thier walking papers good luck, there are jobs out there you just have to be creative.

LINK :: Sun to lay off 6000 Workers