Posts marked “Comment of the Day”

What Happens When Massive Unemployment Meets Irrational Exuberance?

Posted August 10, 2009

Picture the scene: Whiner-in-Chief, The Guru, and Offspring #2 were waiting for some sandwiches at a fairly deserted deli, on a very deserted Main Street, in an extremely small town in Western New York, in the midst of a college-visiting trip that ignored all the icky questions (how are we possibly going to pay for all this) while focusing on the search for #2’s best-of-all-possible schools.

W-i-C picked up a local newspaper (even without any other customers around, this place was seriously slow) with an eye-catching headline: “Job losses start to ease.” The news was good: Despite all expectations (including ours) that the U.S.’s unemployment rate was heading inevitably toward 10%, it dropped in July to 9.4%.

Euphoria. Only 247,000 jobs were lost in June. (Sorry if yours was one of them. We mean: Only 246,999 jobs that didn’t really matter, plus yours.)

And then there was the kicker: “It’s Over“ — !!!!! — at least according to a big tony British investment bank, Barclays Capital Research. Apparently, plenty of other economists now believe that June, 2009 will turn out to be the end of our unending string of bad economic news.

We’d like to believe that. Unfortunately, believing it necessitates our overlooking a few unpleasant realities, including:

In the News

The Newest (Bad) Retail News

Posted February 2, 2009

Apparently, it’s not possible to begin the work week without the report of at least one big layoff that convinces The Whiner it wasn’t worth waking up.

Today, it’s Macy’s turn. The retailer announced plans to cut 7,000 jobs, or about 4% of the workforce. Of course, the week is still young. We wouldn’t be surprised to hear similar tidings from a few other major retailers as well, since this is one of absolute weakest of industries on EconoWhiner’s DeathWatch.

Rather than yet again bemoan the obvious — you can’t have a consumer-driven recovery if there are no more employed consumers — we leave you with a few questions:

1) Who’s next? Or rather, which retailers do you expect will be left standing after the dust on the EconoMess finally settles?

2) Can shopping malls survive? With few big retailers strong enough to serve as as anchors, we’re wondering if the mall-ing of America will finally be behind us.

3) What has to happen to get you back to shopping, the way you used to shop? Or, do you feel that you’ve changed for good (and we do mean for “good”).

The Whiner also wants to know: How do you feel about these Monday layoffs? Have you started to expect them — or to stop noticing?