Yes, there will be belt tightening for the foreseeable future. I'm glad Obama wasn't attempting to gloss over the problems in his appearance on 60 Minutes last night. I am optimistic that the U.S. will get more cooperation from the international community, too. After all, our problems are their's to a great extent, and vice versa.

 

listening to msnbc in the background.
citigroup is announcing plans to reduce headcount by 53,000

 

That's on top of the 23000 previously announced, making it ~75000.

 

Uhoh...I'd better see what my investment advisor is up to.

 

We stopped by the mall in Boise on Saturday and the parking lot was as full as we have seen it even during the Christmas shopping season. The lines at the registers was long as well.

I know companies are closing stores and people are losing their jobs, but people are still out shopping from what I have seen.

 

^^ Reminds me of a situation that happened to my husband about 15 yrs ago. He was traveling and got a call on his cellphone from the office. EVERYONE who worked for his division had been let go and he was the only person they kept. He was quite shocked, saddened and yet . . . he still had a position with the company. Over and over he kept asking himself why. We've pondered many times why this happened. It continued to happen several times over the years and he always managed to keep his position. I told him repeatedly it was just because he was brilliant and did a good job , but I have to say it was quite nerve wracking for him. One of our neighbors was one of those who was let go early on and he is not our most friendly neighbor wonder why?

 

Here in CA, the Mervyns chain is closing all their stores. Mervyns is not a "premium" store, it is a working-class clothing store that we shop at frequently.

Locally, many companies have announced or hinted at layoffs, my own company has announced much worse than expected Q4 projections -- it is only a matter of time before they also announce layoffs.

But last Friday, a worker who was fired earlier in the day returned to his company to do his own "firing". He brought a 9mm pistol and killed the CEO and two other officers of the company. This will make things much worse for the people being laid off (i.e., no time to pack, no time to say good-bye to friends, no returns, etc.).

 

Before Citi Groups announcement today, there had already been 200k job cuts in the financial community and another 100k anticipated soon.

Linens & Things today had everything 80% off; did some X-Mas shopping.

There is not a customer base for both Lowes and Home Depot in a lot of areas.

Others struggling right now are Target, Starbucks, Panera, and Best Buys. Color Pets Mart is going down, according to Kramer.

Look for closings among some of the big Restaurant Chains.

Besides Pep Boys, there are Advance Auto and Auto Zone and O'Reileys closings highly competitive areas.

For many of these, the problems loomed well before the recent hard downturn.

It's looking like economic Darwinism out there, and there is going to be a lot more jobless pain out there. Really sad.

 

Noticed a blip about Target's struggles today. I heard a blip on the news that some folks had stopped shopping at Walmart in favor of cheaper buys elsewhere. Tough, tough times.

 

Isn't all this to be expected in an economy that has been so dependent on consumer spending via credit cards? WalMart has been the biggest corporation in the country, no?

Forgive me for being crude, but the basis for our "prosperity" in recent years has been nothing more than an economic circle jerk. We don't manufacture and sell to other countries, we don't extract and sell raw materials, we buy from other countries and sell to each other, even to the point (in affluent areas like where I live at least) of having proxy shoppers for people too busy with their Botox appointments to go to the mall.

It's a house of cards, and there's been an earthquake so it's all tumbled down. Now it's just a question of picking up the pieces.

So, who's next? I predict one of K-Mart, Target, WalMart, on the big scale at least. And meanwhile, lots of little guys are going away. HPH