The Economy's Picking Up!

[Koldfront Kraig]

For you folks having a hard time with the slow economy don't worry.

The company I work for is usually the first to slow down and the first to get busy.

IBM is ordering systems like crazy right now. Were buying a new machine center, hiring two more employees and ordering about $65,000 worth of copper bar to make parts!

Be patient, it's picking up.

[sevenmmm]

Yep. Price paid for scrap steel is very high right now! :-)

[Paul H]

Scrap's going to the east - China - etc.

Market's real tight in US.

I'm in the rail industry and all last year was good and going up.

[Burr ND]

Likewise in transporation. Our 4th Quarter 2003 was strong.

[WI Guest]

Yup, Bush really got her moving 1000 new jobs last month. so 50 states divided by 1000 is 20 count em --- 20 jobs per state. WOW ! ! !

[Terroreyes]

Sure it's picking up, but where the heck are the jobs??????

Time for the rich to get richer at the common workers expense. Everything is up except for jobs, unless you want to consider recovering less than 1% of the jobs lost as something to cheer about. Company owners are taking advantage of the slight upturn and putting all the money in their own pockets without realizing that if they keep it up for another month or two without hiring and taking advantage of the employers market, THEY are going to send this economy nosediving faster than it did before.

What happened to the dow today? And why??????
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[kliph]

No Politics. We are being watched!

>Yup, Bush really got her moving 1000 new jobs last month. so 50 states divided by 1000 is 20 count em --- 20 jobs per state. WOW ! ! !<

How would you get the economy going, by rasing taxes? Bush did not start the problem
with 9-11.

http://www.cnn.com/2000/ALLPOLITICS/stories/12/04/economy.nextpresident.ap/

We are being watched!

[Terroreyes]

HEY! Not me! I purposely avoided making a political statement!!!!! Mine was of the economic nature!:)
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[shadowman]

this is our problem we all expect everything to get better over night, 1000 jobs is a drop in the bucket but its better than a 1000 jobs lost right? tell that to the 20 familes per state, our problems didn,t start over night and it ain,t gonna fix itself over night lets give it some time ok, if you start adding up all the small positives every week or month sooner or later it adds up, lets give it some time.

[bobberal]

Well said Shadow...1000 beams of light, or a 1000 jobs not lost.

Al

"St Cloud Minnesota is a Packer Town"

The best all around fishing boat is owning two boats....

"We own the night"

[Texeye]

Shadow you have it right.

Nations and economies can fall in a single day but they cannot be built in such a short time.

Texeye

[Terroreyes]

Problem is... some people don't have time to wait. All the extended unemployment benefits were revoked because of our "robust" recovery of 1000 jobs and mortgages are going to start defaulting, bakruptcies are going to skyrocket even higher, and that's going to send us straight backwards. Alot of people making even $30,000 a year ago aren't going to be able to keep their houses, cars, etc. making $7-9 per hour which is all that's out there. What about all the auto workers making $50,000+???? The Ford plant I'm doing work at laid off 60% of their workforce over the last year and there is no sign of them coming back any time soon. More areas are getting mothballed every day.

I'm one one of those 20 here in Michigan. I'm not jumping up and down. I've got my fingers crossed but my instincts tell me we're a ways from being out of the woods. Another 9-11 incident and we're really in trouble!!!
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[Ne contractor]

I see signs of improvement, but I am concerned about the long term situation with all of the immigrants, legal or illegal, coming in and working for much less than we are used being paid. These people are taking hi tech positions as well as the manual labor. Our government barely makes a dent in trying to police the illegals. I believe that there are a lot of payroll tax dollars that this country is missing out on. You can't tell me that this doesn't hurt our economy. This year will be an interesting one, and the years to come for that matter.

God Speed!

[Terroreyes]

Yep!!! 3 new hires at my job. 1 American(me), 2 Honduran immigrants. Don't speak one sylable of English. Cheap labor though. There went two nice paying union jobs!
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[Ne contractor]

I'm telling you this is scary. I have a duaghter in college and 1 in high school. I think they are going to have to be special to find a decent living when they hit the work force.

God Speed!

[rebelrn2001]

Working hard and going to school and some luck is still the only real way to become rich. If you are a democrat, the feeling is this: "I shouldn't have to work hard to get money that someone else earned by being smart". I am sick and tired of the near socialist democrats saying 'the rich get richer and the poor get poorer'. I am being taxed to high heaven to support all the give aways to so many people who could be actually contributing to society instead of pulling it down. By the way, I am not rich and I work hard---3 jobs. What ever happened to the saying "necessity is the mother of invention". You don't hear that anymore because it is too easy to suck off of everyone else.

[Ne contractor]

I don't think this is a Dems vs Reps deal. Well maybe it is but lets not go there.

Do you like working 3 jobs? Our country had a standard of full time being 40 hrs. a week. I think 45 or 50 would be ok, but with as spoiled as we are, I think that we either work ourselves under the table to keep what we had or learn to settle for less. It's just hard for me to adjust to this more difficult time. Don't think I'm crying as I'm just trying to expose this imigration situation, and the impact it has on our lifestyles. I like fishing, and spending free time with the family.

God Speed!

[rebelrn2001]

Absolutely, I work one job 56 hrs every 2 wks (as an RN), I have a sales job I work as needed. Spring is the busy time. I sell home improvements (windows/doors/siding/roofing). I take vacation (about 1 wk worth) from my main (read benefits/insurance etc) job to go to the home show and set up appts there. I also work as needed at a local nursing home where I used to work. I work there about 1-2 days every 2 wks. Thus 3 jobs (I also have my license to substitute teach K-12 but don't do that anymore). Altogether I work about 80 hrs every 2 wks but I am much more flexible this way. I only work at the sales when I want or need to and the 'as needed' job I don't have to do at all if I don't want to. I don't do the 'as needed' job for the $$, it mostly is for something to do and of course I can use the money. I knew I would strike a nerve with my post and kind of feel bad about posting it but my brother (the attorney who is a stay at home dad--his wife is an attorney too) is a flaming demo and that is his take on the USA, that the little guy has no chance in life and is always taken advantage of and they need UNCLE SAM to bail them out all the time. I say, DO IT YOURSELF. Know what I mean?

[Terroreyes]

Oops, wrong post.
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[Terroreyes]

I agree with what you said. There are two distinctions though. Those that take advantage of uncle sam and those that need uncle sam. All of our futures are ultimately in his hands no matter how well educated or how hard we work. If you are a hard worker and put forward a good effort to live the American dream, then if uncle sam makes a mistake, you should not lose what you worked so hard for. He should be there to back you up and see you through the hard times. That is what we pay taxes for and watch being squandered away for personal benefit and special interest on all sides. Some things even happen that are beyond uncle sams control but there were safety nets in place to catch the people who really needed it and keep our American dream intact. Many upper class and other people are so paranoid of the freeloaders that they're forgetting about everyone in between and those are the people that made America what it is.
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[FisHn2DMax]

Clinton's Nafta and Now Bush's Plan to legalize illegals in the USA!

Clinton started the export of US jobs with NAFTA and NOW Bush ( as much as it hurts me now to say it, I voted for Him) has taken any and all last shreds of hope for the average legal American worker and given our jobs to those that DON'T ABIDE BY THE LAWS OF THIS LAND! I guess Bush must feel he needs the millions of illegals in the this country to vote him back into office because I won't vote for him again! I'll bet his next proposal is to allow illegals to vote? The only people we seem to be taking care of are those that don't follow or abide by the laws. WHAT THE #### was BUSH thinking? He talks about about terrorism and the need to tighten our borders and security, and then turns around and rewards those that sneek across those very borders he's worried terrorist may cross. In Essence he may have just given a terrorist the right to stay in this country as long as her/she has a job? What message does that send to those on the other side of the borders...? To me, it says If you can sneek into the United States and keep a low prile and not get caught for a few years, you will eventually get Legalization and possible citizenship. Personally, I think we should do the just opposite in light of 9-11. We should move our Military in order to 100% secure our borders and limit all imigration to the US until we get our hands around international terrorist problems.

Just my $.02

[T. Hammer]

Its not all about policy and terror attacks. The baby boomers are retiring and their disposable income as well. They do not spend as big on fixed incomes. That in itself will cause less demand and more layoffs. Then there is the non-controlable factors overseas wherein we find ourselves competing at home for materials from abroad. Asian paper pulp is selling for dirt... Canadian paper pulp is far more expensive and home grown more expensive still. In order to compete with international companies shipping paper into this country, we have to purchase the cheap Asian paper pulp. And every time we lose a sale to overseas competitors, it is costing jobs at home. And every time we need to purchase materials from overseas, we lose jobs. And every time a factory locates overseas we lose jobs. And there is nothing that can be done about that except to penalize companies for moving business' overseas and purchasing materials from overseas. And that is unconstitutional. A free market economy is just that. Sure you can go isolationist, but that fails in the long run as well. So do tarriffs. So even 1,000 jobs increase is a great start.

Also, hiring usually lags behind stocks, so currently it is reflective of stocks 6 months ago. Wait and see what it looks like in 6 months! There will be numerous job openings.

[Arbra]

I knew this subject was going to drift to politics, some guys can't resist.

[shadowman]

you know if we took every able bodied american who is on welfare and put them to work there wouldn,t be any jobs for the illegals, if you can stay at home and sleep till noon and know that there was a check coming every month why work right? for every person who deserves help from our goverment there are two who don,t , the only reason the imigrants come here they claim is for jobs that american,s won,t do but if you can collect a check every month from the goverment you can sure as #### go pick corn or shovel pig poop or whatever, its time to start cleaning house and you start by cleaning your own first, these problems didn,t start with the current goverment it goes way back, we were already giving these people ( illegals ) everything free when they got here like health care and schooling for their children, for every illegal who comes here and takes a job there is an american sitting on the couch waiting for the mailman to bring them their free money and those are who i blame, get off your #### and go take one of those jobs, now i,m not talking about the man or woman who just got laid off or whose plant closed down i,m talking about people like my little brother who would rather let the state pay to keep him than go and at least try to make an honest buck.

[The Democrat]

Maybe that's why my Oregon Steel stock is going up.