Thank God for the world financial crisis!

[Paul B]

They dropped the official interest rate by another 1% today. That's about a 3% drop since september.

I'm better off on my mortgage repayments by almost a grand a month!

Yippee!

Just so long as I still have a job

[sebastiaan56]

Yeh, we are much better off as well, my personal theory is that NSW has been stagflating for some time now, whereas the boom states / industries are going to feel unfamiliar pain. 2% in 2 months is one heck of a stimulus.

[kiwigeo]

Dropping the interest rate isnt going to kick start the economy. The mining industry is bucketting big time and the manufacturing sector is also heading into a major slow down.

Ive got plenty of work into next year but Im preparing to go into my usual "survival mode" as I have done on four occasions already.

[Lillian]

The county where I work has just layed off 160, terminated jobs on about 50 more and are asking us to take a voluntary two week furlough without pay. I was the last one hired in my department. Not a comfortable feeling. One of our banks just folded, put 3400 people out of jobs. Boeing is talking about laying off hundreds of people next year. Things are going to get a lot worse before they get better.

[Hesh1956]

Yep things are not good here and 180,000 jobs were lost in November alone in the states.

Although the banks have been and will continue to be bailed out they still refuse to lend money instead squirreling away the windfall for more than just the bad mortgages that are going tits up. What's next, since people are out of work is that folks will be defaulting on credit card debt too. They won't be able to purchase products causing further unemployment and the circle spins further downward.

The CEOs of the big three (automotive) are being abused by congress even though I am normally not a fan of fat cats. But as congress gets punitive with these industry leaders congress has presided over this recession from it's inception...... I would love to see one of the automotive CEOs say this to congress and add that there is not a person in the hearing/room who does not have shit on their faces......

The worst part, and I know I have said this prior, is that there is nothing on the horizon in terms of new opportunities that the US is well positioned to take advantage of that might be what pulls us out of the toilet. With this in mind this recession is different in nature and causes than any previous one that I am aware of.

It's all very scary.........

Hang in Lillian my friend and I have my fingers crossed for you.

[Hesh1956]

Revision - the official job loss numbers are now in for November in the US and the number is over 500,000....... Traditionally November has low job loss and much hiring for the holiday season.

The November US job loss number is the highest in 34 years and that is because record keeping beyond 34 years was not accurate.

[Lillian]

My brother works for AT&T in their wireless security section. Yesterday he received an email that went company wide that morning. It was an announcement that they would be laying off 1200 starting at the first of the year and would continue until things started looking better.

He leaves in January for his third tour in the Sandbox. I not such he is more apprehensive about, going back to Balad or possible coming home to no job.

[Hesh1956]

Well Lillian here is wishing that your brother has a very safe tour.

I read about the ATT layoffs and at least they are not pulling the trigger until after the holidays.......