Friday, February 6, 2009

Adrift....

"It's quiet out there."

"Yeah, too quiet."

FLIEEETHT! (Arrow quivering in back...)

It's very hard to get a read on things right now. I looked out the window the other day, and there were 10 parking spots in front of my store (out of 12). This was about 4:00 in the afternoon, and I can't remember the last time that had happened.

Next day, after a very slow couple of hours, I looked out and they were all full.

I've hit my average for the month so far, but it's been almost all comics. Some of my subscribers have been trickling in and picking up their shelves. This is reassuring, since they really are the base of my store -- but the numbers on everything else are way down.

Comments on the BB2 this week so far, are a measly 200 in number. Bend Economy Board seems to have even less traffic.

Congress continues to play politics, and I'm disgusted with both sides. The Democrats have undoubtedly poured tons of pork on the barbie, and may not be doing due diligence (again) while the Republicans seem to think corporate tax breaks are a good idea.
I really don't want to get into a political discussion, here. I'm just registering my disgust.

I just think there isn't much clarity in the situation right now. As though everyone's waiting for another shoe to drop.

I personally believe there might be another level to drop. The people on top, the Davos people, the economists on Charlie Rose, the economy blogs I pay attention to, are so much more dire than before, it makes you wonder.

I don't believe that just because they all agree, they must be wrong. That seems like magical thinking to me, just as believing that if they all agreed in the opposite direction they must be wrong.

Anecdotally, I'm hearing of more and more layoffs and hours cut. Microsemi layed their people off for the week, for instance. I'm also losing customers to out-of-town work, more and more.

I think this is the kind of economy where clear-cut bad things could happen, but anything good is probably happening behind the scenes and incrementally.

So we just need to keep muddling through.
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1 comment:

RDC said...

Not sure why you have summerized the Republican position as just being "Corporate Taxbreaks"

Jan 28 (Reuters) - Following are details of an alternative proposal to boost the struggling U.S. economy that Republicans in the House of Representatives plan to offer during debate on Wednesday. The cost of their proposal is approximately $478 billion.

* Cut the lowest two income tax rates for 2009 and 2010, from 15 percent to 10 percent and from 10 percent to 5 percent.

* Extend through 2010 a patch to the Alternative Minimum Tax, which was originally designed to ensure that wealthy people pay taxes, but instead would hit millions of middle-income families with higher taxes.

* Expand the $7,500 first-time homebuyers tax credit for a principal residence to all homebuyers while limiting it to purchasers who can make a down payment of at least 5 percent of the purchase price.

* Provide a tax deduction for small businesses with less than 500 employees equal to 20 percent of their income.

* Offer new tax deduction for those who do not receive tax-preferred, employer-sponsored health care coverage. And provide assistance to the unemployed who do not qualify for a COBRA premium subsidy.

* Give tax exemption on unemployment benefits and extend temporary federal unemployment benefits through 2009, phasing it out through mid-2010.

* Allow companies to write off current losses against previous tax years for up to five years. Companies now can only "carry back" losses for two years. The tax break would not be available to banks and other companies receiving help from the $700 billion bailout package.

* Extend through 2009 a break for small businesses that allows them to immediately write off up certain capital expenditures. (Reporting by Jeremy Pelofsky, editing by David Wiessler)

Now out of that proposal, which by the way now includes 15,000 tax credit for home purchases, exactly how many qualify as tax breaks for Corporations?

February 6, 2009 at 11:04:00 AM PST

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