economy growing faster then expected!!!

yippy yeah

the first quater resoluts are in and guess what. The economy has grown more then expected.

that's right the economy was only expect ot grow .6% but it instead it grew a whopping .9% at this rate we will soon be have single digit growth. :)






hey with the way things are going we need to be happy at ever little thing we can get.

Hey come up and visit us, eh?

there have been recent reports stating that Canada's tourism is down right now.

in fact they have hit a record low.

mainly it is down because the travels of Americans going to Canada has dropped 15%.

a lot of focus is on the fact that the Canadan dollar is high compared to the US dollar. And it is true that plays a big a role in this dent on Canada's travel industry. a lot of people whent over to canada because they could get good deals on things.

another focus is the fact that we have to get passports to go between the countries now when we used to be able to travel back and forth without one. Which I think is a really big reason why tourism is down in Canada right now. A lot of people don't have passports but they used to be able to go up to Canada for a day/weekend.

For example it was common for Americans that turned 18 to go over to Canada because they could legaly drink alcahol. Now the kid that doesn't have a passport isn't able to do so and money this little drunkered would have spent in Canadian bars has been cut off.

having to get a passport is also a bigger hassle. Before the only problem with going to Canada might have been getting stuck in traffic while trying to cross the border.

But of course one of the biggest reasons (that also ties into the first reason) is the fact that the American economy is down right now and so people don't have as much money to spend on traveling.

are we out of the recession yet?

The AP has released an article today talking about what economist are looking at to tell if we are out of this economic recession.

what they state is pretty common sense. they say that economist are looking at stabilization in the housing market and gas prices as well improvement in the labor market.

so basically economist are looking at what everyone else is looking at.

what I did find intrusting in the article is that compared to are last few recessions it is people that are feeling the effects and not business.

the reason...debt or at least how we have to pay back are debt. More people are having to use there money to pay of debt while business can get away with paying off less (they currently pay off on average 10% a year on debt where as in 90's they where paying around 30% on average)


hmmm maybe the way to turn around this economy is that everyone becomes a company so we can all cut our debt payments down.

male economic recession

Business week has an article talking about the fact the economic slump we are in is hitting men harder then women.


This is because industries that usually have a higher percentage of men working in such as construction and manufacturing have lost a lot of jobs.

on the flip side industries that statistically have more women working in it, such as education and health care, are still growning.

But while men are losing jobs things really aren't rosey for women. They still face lower pay then men and many of the jobs open to them aren't really that good. Woman are stressed out more then ever since they now have more to do and their husbands can't help out as much (at least not economically) and the one has to wonder when/if the bad economy will start hitting the so called women jobs.



*note the ideal of breaking jobs by gender was business weeks ideal not mind.

Don't think like an economic?

Stephen A Marglin at the Communities dominate brands blog has raised an interesting theory today.

He thinks that thinking like an economist has destroyed the ideal of community.

The ideal is basically the ideal is thinking like an economist usually means thinking "what can I get out of it" which undermines the ideal of a we in community.

I can see where he gets the ideal, though I disagree with the ideal that an economist mind set means someone has to think in a "what can I get out of it" mindset

the buck doesn't stop here

Bush is currently blaming the state on the economy on the Democrats.

Of course the democrats blame him and the Republicans.



personly I think they both are to blame since everyone is going for party lines instead of coming together to push polices that may boost the nation's economy

race and foreclosure

Last night I was watching nightline which ran a story about a housing counselor who is helping people in the Baltimore neigbhorhood he works in to fight off foreclosure.


in the news story it was stated that african americans are 4 times as likely as white americans to be facing foreclosure and the mayor of Baltimore thinks one of the reason is because Wells Fargo is more likely to give African Americans a crappy deal.

the thing is what she says might not really be that shocking. But the numbers might be on Mayor Dixon's side, giving that african american and latinos are more likely to get subprime loans then whites.


it sad but industries in the housing market have had a history of doing things like that in the past. for example there where a few cases in 2006 where home retailers where sued because they directed people to certian neighborhoods based on the persons race.

or the redlining that went on during the 30's to the 60's