..omg i do not like this sound of this men an like we need a great depressoin that when alot of ppl we lost everthing an this is not right at all i read about the great depression  what happen back in the day it was soo sad to read it see alot of ppl lost everthing lost there job an home i do not want to worry about that what a cold world an everthing it soo miss up take a long time to fix it ....
 

I have just read this article Charlie, and there seems some hope, but as an outsider I don..t quite get the meaning of a"bellwether plant" although I looked up several sources that I have.,I..wasn..t able to find an explanation pertaining to your blog.Also  what do you mean with the word communism  in this blog?
I find this word is used quite a lot in the US  these days  I think many really don..t know the real meaning of communism.
I have friends in Wisconsin and their businesses have really suffered especially in the car repair services, but maybe it is their German  heritage that keep them going. !!Never give up.
I would appreciate an answer Charlie not necessarily personal but in general
Thanks Liane


 

Hi Liane,

A bellwether is an old English term which refers to  something which may predict or foreshadow events, trends or actions to come. In this case, the factory may be a hopeful sign that as the economy begins to stabilize, in the future more factories may open or stay open as opposed to the recent past trend of many factories closing.

Hope this helps,

Jenn in Canada
 

Charlie..this is wonderful news for these workers! It must have been a very scary time for them. I do have to say though...isn't politics funny? We've been complaining about the problems in this country, and you all respond "It's only been 8 months, it's gonna take years to fix this"....now one thing goes well, and it's "Wow, the man's a genius! Look what he did in only 8 months!!" ROFLOL! We all do it, but it's funny to watch.
  I'll take recovery however we can get it....but truthfully, these things take YEARS to bear fruit. Economics is cyclical. What we're seeing now most likely isn't directly related to Obama, but instead the result of things put into place by Bush or even Clinton. Pres Clinton gets major points for how great the economy was during his years...but much of it was the seeds planted by Reagan finally bringing forth fruit(plus the dot.com bubble and a Republican Congress who had the cajones to stop a lot of the proposed spending)...and before you burst a blood vessel, I voted for Clinton(twice) so I'm not just bashing Dems here. Pres Bush gets slammed for the economy(and some of it deserved in the last 2 years, when his veto pen apparently ran out of ink, and we can talk for hours about war spending)...but "some" of the issue was that same dot.com bubble bursting, and of course 9/11. Obama says he "inherited" problems from Bush..well, he also "inherited" some good things that were brewing too. Don't think we didn't notice the "oh s**t" deer-in-the-headlights look on Obama's face the day after inauguration, when he had his top-secret security briefings. Funny, after that...he not only kept the Patriot Act but expanded it, didn't close Gitmo(cuz he can't find anywhere to PUT these supposedly misunderstood people), and we're still in Iraq and now in Afghanistan. Didn't mean to change the subject there...but I think that shows that perhaps Bush knew what he was doing some of the time after all. The only President who didn't "inherit" brewing problems and planted seeds of good was George Washington.
 That said..may we see more of this, no matter who "set the wheels in motion". God bless America.

 

Not sure George Washington would agree with that last statement, but...well said overall. If I could click my shiny red heels together 3 times and make a wish, it would be that we would begin to understand this and stop playing the blame game. It gets us nowhere. A house divided against itself and all that.

 

You're right ( and hell has just dropped to below zero!) These things are cyclical and it was not ALL GW's fault. There has been a growing culture of self-interest and greed for many decades which resulted in the collapse of a badly de-regulated market. The real issues run very deep and may take many decades or even centuries to be resolved. They are attitudes and priorities that have been ingrained into the way we think about ourselves and what we should be striving to acheive. Until we re-examine what we mean by success, America, strong, wealth etc. we will be chasing the wrong rainbows and dismantling everything we love in the process.
That said, I am glad that there are signs that we are pulling out of this particular nose-dive. Of course the "stabilizing" of the economy is on the backs of massive lay-offs and misery, but a leaner business is a healthier business. The hope is that as these businesses gain back their strength, they will begin to hire again. It may be too late for those that have gone, but not for those entering the workforce.
My worry is that those who are left jobless will be made to suffer even more thanks to this nonsensical opposition to Health Care reform.

 

I agree totally on everything your saying and others have said this as well... The last sentence disturbs me. Being that I'm about to make a very big and highly expensive commitment and go back to school to finish my nursing degree--and I can't help feeling confused on whether I should go forth with it--or change my choice to another field all together.  My husband lost his job-and has taken on his own business--and we can't afford for me to take on such a investment of money and time --just to come out with nothing and deep in more debt-- Everytime I talk to someone or read about the state that we're in --it is so scary because--I'm looking through the eyes of my young daughters and I'm trying to see a postive out come for our & their future!!! 

 

I like this...love to hear about the glimmers of hope...and I agree that there needs to be some change rather than none at all.  I've seen the lines at a hospital where people are sent that have no insurance...many were people who had lost their jobs. The floors were filthy, no place for people to sit.  People who were very ill and could hardly stand had to lean against the filthy walls until it was their turn...which takes a long time...hours.

It broke my heart.
 

ha ha. now *that's* funny.  (the hell dropping below zero part)  now the day that Miss Thang,  Miss ZMT moves even farther to the left than the Independent she keeps threatening to become and people can go ice skating in hell . . . THAT'S the day I'm waiting for.  ;-)
 

very funny there T-Rex(or are you the other dinosaur?)...I keep threatening to go Independent because the Republicans are conservative enough!

 

Go Independent. Come to the dark side, ZMT -- well, maybe the gray side. We're waiting for you.

 

You know when I was first married, some 34 years ago, my husband and I started out at Independents. What we found was that we could not vote in the primarys. So we had to change from Independent, to Republican.
And have been that ever since. We both are leaning towards the Indepentent canadates when its time to vote. But end up voting Republican because there doesn't seem to be any way an Independent could win. They dont have the backing of either party. Its been very frustrating.  But I do agree that it takes years to make things happen, and years full of greed, and stupidity to bring everything to a screeching halt.
I'm glad for the news that there may be a little up swing, and people might be getting jobs. I'm not sure how that will affect the masses that have lost their companies, and lost their jobs. Time will tell.
My gut feeling is that we really havent seen the worst of it yet. And I'm concerned that its worse than we even know.
This country has soooo many wonderful people in it, that maybe we can have a full recovery. God only knows...
 

Dinosaur?  T-Rex?  Not hardly either.  Don't know WHAT that's about! I'm like a sweet lovable, kind adorable, little beagle puppy.
 

I was wondering why I just saw a pig fly by my window ;o)!!! Thank you. I really think we're all in the same book, just  not on the same page. I, too, hope that there is not too much suffering from these massive layoffs, job losses, pay cuts, hours cut back, etc. I know too many people who are taking "voluntary" days off, so that none of their coworkers have to lose a job. That's America to me...all giving a little to help us all(but I want it to be voluntary, not forced).
  Some of these businesses going under may have a silver lining...they've been propped up too long, and perhaps it's time for those who want to compete to become entrepreneurs(and every Nanny fan just said "I too am an entre-manure"..LOL). We have set a bad precedent for bailing out/enabling failed businesses.
  Please understand too, that we are NOT against health care reform. I'm *in* health care so I see the problems from both sides(and have to deal with insurance cos daily...Maalox isn't cheap, you know). We just don't like or trust this bill. It was not written by people we trust or with pure motives. Lobbyists from all of the big $$$ players in back room deals, a Congress that has an approval rating in the low 20s(you all like to cite Bush's low ratings, yet accept folks whose approval rating is EVEN LOWER being in charge of authoring this???). Nancy Pelosi does not inspire confidence, to tell you the truth. We WANT reform...just give us what Obama promised...round table talks with all parties represented, take the time and do it right, and broadcast the whole thing on CSpan so we can be kept aware.
  Personally, I'd love to see the employer/insurance connection broken. It's a huge $$ burden for people who don't work for large businesses(that would be me), it's a hardship on small-medium sized business owners who can't make ends meet and still give their employees all the things the govt. demands(which then leads to hiring illegals to do the work without the perks or outsourcing overseas), it forces people to stay in a job they hate just for the benefits, and it hinders those who have a fresh idea but can't start a new business with all of the rules and regulations. If we all had policies of our own..buying what we needed and wanted and assessing the risks we were each willing to take, this would be a lot easier. We have people with full time jobs with insurance...who are either under- or over-insured, but bound by the decisions of their boss. Well..again, I went down a rabbit hole with that one, didn't I? So many ideas out there, among the people, and no one is listening. Health care is too important to rush through like this.

 

It helps to get the whole picture...and I'm wondering about something.  Several years ago I was working for a company that almost doubled our monthly health insurance payment and they did it with hardly any notice...people had to make snap decisions or lose their insurance.  So I did some research and found out that that particular insurance company was in the middle of a law suit in Florida and were being sued for millions of dollars by a group of dollars.  I brought this to the employees attention and the management as a possible contributing reason for the sudden hike.

Then I did some more research in the Texas insurance laws and discovered that there is no cap on rates for insurance companies to charge for small businesses.  In addition I discovered a list of insurance company's that were under investigation for fraud - and it was long.  Also noteworthy is that from some reports I saw it looks like insurance companies make their money from the life insurance policies.

I have some questions - I can understand wanting to make insurance companies more competitive, but I wonder why the government doesn't regulate a cap on rates for small business.  Where is the enourmous costs of health care with hospitals and doctors coming from?  Why did it cost my insurance company $946.30 dollars for my emergency room visit for the flu and an additional cost to me of $815.51?  And this was after a deduction of some contractional adjustment of $715.07.

I'm not a fan of statistics because I know that they can be made to look different for different things.  But I do like it when someone mentions trends.  I've used trends before to help pinpoint a problem and it was very effective.  Do you or anyone else have any trend reports on the health problem?


 

Correction to the paragraph that says the insurance company was being sued by a group of "dollars"...meant to say "doctors" :)
 

As recently as last week Wis. almost lost one of its factories.  OK was prepared to offer Mercury Marine Corp. a $300 million dollar state, local and federal funded incentive pkg. to move here.  They would have brought 850 jobs with them.  They were in a dispute over workers wages & benefits.  Wis. sweetened the deal & said it would be funded, in part, by new county sales tax.  They will retain the jobs but at what cost?  Will that offset the incentive pkg - whatever it is? . . . .I'm really happy those 850 people will have jobs though I wouldn't have minded having them here.
 

Sounds like tax breaks for the wealthy and increased taxes on the masses to support it, hmmmmm sounds like the Repulican way of doing things, yet when the Democrats deploy the same tactics, it is supporting our economy. 
 

Another sign of things turning!  I am in Massachusetts and have as a client a home inspection company.  Their job is to inspect homes for home buyers before final papers are signed. Toward the end of the Bush adminstration,  work was slow, they were inspecting perhaps 5-7 homes per week each (2 Inspectors).  Now they are each doing  3 inspections per day, 6 days a week and sometimes one or two on Sunday.  The properties being inspected vary from single homes, condos and commercial & investment properties.  Every now and again an inspection will be for a property owner seeking to remortgage but the majority of the work is for new home buyers. Yes the President has a big job on his hands to turn this economy around and it will take some time to get to the point where we were before, if we even get there, but it has to start sometime, regardless how small and regardless  if it happened within 8 months or 12 months. It's still a start!  In my opinion, if what Bush and Clinton put in place was so great we would not be in the mess that we are today.  And that is my opinion, not a party line!
 

Housing sales were up 25% in Lancaster County PA. during the month of July--that's certainly a positive sign that( just maybe) things are slowly getting better with the economy--
 

Hi Donna,  I am interested in your comment because I owned a title company in the D.C. metroplex in the mid 90's for a few years.  I did real estate settlements - mainly for refinance.

I noticed that the r.e. business there seemed to react to what was going on in the White House.  What I mean by that is that when things sounded good, then business was up, but when there was talk of companies being required to pay insurance for employees, business went down quickly.  Companies were laying off to prepare for the possibility and homeowners were backing off of buying or refinancing.

My company was just a fledgling company but I went from 60 settlements a month down to 3 in about a month's time when that happened.  Many of us had to close our business.  My competitors were mainly lawyers and had their practice to fall back on, however, I did get a few calls from lawyers looking for work.

So, I think the trend is that people tend to follow their fears about Washington and it effects business in a great way - at least it did for me - I had to close business as well.
 

I definitely agree here. I'm sure there were things that Bush, Clinton and even Reagan did that led to the problems we have now....a great many of the folks who were in Congress back then are still here today, so they bear much of the responsibility. We may change POTUS every 4 yrs, some of those Congresscritters have been there since day one. I'm not sure if Robert Byrd can even stand up on his own anymore or hear one word that's being said...but there he is, decade after decade. Biden has been there since I was in 7th grade.
  I do think, though...that we have a life "pre-9/11" and "post-9/11" I'm sure there were many things that "could have" happened(good and bad) with the economy, had that terrible day not occurred. It's the one "pass" I'll give Bush..that was an awful lot to handle 8 months in, and it put every plan on the back burner and halted much that had been already in the works. The SHTF that day, and everything changed. I think every President puts wheels in motion that the experts tell him will fix the current problems, without having a crystal ball to know what will happen to derail those wheels or set them on a different track. It just "sounds like a good idea at the time".

 

That was one of the best written articles I have ever read.  Thank you Charlie for posting that!  We here in Wisconsin we do have alot of manufacturing plants, and as the ecomomy took a slide, every business around here felt the effects.  Small business starting closing due to that fact, local grocery stores lost business due to Walmart's competitive prices and 24 hour access.  One of my friend's here works at a paper machine plant, and what they have done for the past year, minimum was they would layoff their highest paying workers, and hire temps at very low wages and no benefits.  To the workers that have great tenacity, that was a big kick in the ass.  Loyalty didn't mean much around here.  His plant also has international relations, and due to this backup of the economy, he lost all of his overtime, which he was looking forward to because summer is the busiest time for the company.  Here in the midwest many people do expect results from their companies...yet, big business decides to either relocate to an area where they KNOW people will put up with communist-like conditions, or close all-together.    America has lost it's sense of security, and it will be a very slow recovery process.  Many, many people are still out of work, businesses are still closing, and gas is still high.  American people like to drive; if gas is high, we dread driving.  Yet, we put up with it.  So while we spend our hard-earned paychecks on getting to work, we don't get to enjoy our money due to spending it all on gas, so it's like a never-ending chase for entertainment.  As a result, we can't shop, we can't go on vacations like we all would like.  Airlines are suffering.  Getting into the airline industry has been a dream of mine for over 5 years, and what I am seeing is a very sad sight.  The world is losing precious economic flow and stability due to less people traveling.  They have to cut costs, lay off workers...yet, cut prices to get people to travel.  So, that in itself is a sad sight.  And this all comes down to one issue.  Greed.  I must say that Americans love money, yet our love has turned on us and given us the finger.   
 

In order to measure an economic recovery, we must define measures that would indicate sustainable growth in production, not just an increasing ability to move money around and steal from the same number of workers.

The new employees in your example produce things. They should be in a different category from those who were employed for moving money around. In order to survive, we have to ..increase.. the number of workers who produce and ..decrease.. the middlemen. Lumping all job losses into one category is counterproductive to measuring results.

Jobs that help steal wealth from others.. (usury).. are bad for an economy. Most jobs lost since 2007 were in the usury category. The massive loss of usury jobs over the past two ..years.. is the first good sign in over two ..decades.. that we are moving again toward an economy that produces as much as it consumes...
   ..more....
 

Bravo !
 

For Jenn in Canada
thanks Jenn for your answer. I finally found the word "bellwether"in my Oxford Dictionary.(DVD)However there was also another explanation as well ,and that was, a bellwether is the leading sheep of the flock often with a bell to its neck!! Somewhat odd.
Thanks again
Liane

 

To those of you who would like some information on what Communism means, there is a man who could explain it to you, his name is NOAM CHOMSKY. Interesting article Mr. Shaugnessy!! Thanks.
Sincerely,
Melissa
 

Thanks Melissa for that info on Noam Chomsky I..ve read some if his books.Also I know what Communism is, but I wanted to know what is meant by Charlies last sentence in his blog where he uses the "communist".

 

It was just a silly, tongue-in-cheek effort at irony. It seems that anything encouraging or useful, either suggested by Obama or occurring under his watch is demonized by the opposition as being "socialist." I was simply taking it to a ridiculous extreme! Ha!

 

Thanks Charlie for for your answer!

 

I'm really glad things are getting better,  I imagine those people who got those jobs, how happy their families were, the weight on their shoulders lift just a bit and they can breathe a little smoother.  This is just a part of the beginning and things are looking up.