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alstry (35.69)

What are the REAL conditions like????

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13

April 13, 2009 – Comments (5)

More than 400 of the 2,000 largest malls in the U.S. have closed in the past two years.

The last new major mall in the U.S. opened in 2006, and only one big mall is scheduled to open this year—the troubled Xanadu mega-mall in Rutherford, N.J.

With some 150,000 retail stores projected to fail in the U.S. this year, more mall closings are imminent.

http://www.theweek.com/article/index/94691/The_vanishing_shopping_mall

Hmmmmmmmmmmm.  We already have 20% unemployment/underemployment in a number of states....what do you think unemployment will be like after 150K retailers shut down????

As I warned you...fewer and fewer are paying taxes....so government is left with fewer and fewer to levy and collect taxes from.....you may find the following an interesting read....WARNING...not for those with a weak heart.....

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/11/business/11fees.html?_r=2

In addition to taxes evaporating....commercial construction is stopping midstream all over the country.....

Construction of the Park Avenue West tower in downtown Portland has stopped, with the project frozen three floors below ground.  [Oregon]

"Everybody is building these big buildings, and they're empty. It is sad. I live in a ghost town."[Washington D.C.]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/11/AR2009041102036.html

Take a stroll down the Vegas strip, or Arizona, or Florida, or California or or or or or or......

So let's sum things up.....20% of our shopping malls have closed in the last couple years, car sales are down 50% in the last couple years, new home sales are down 70% in the last couple years, real unemployment is currently above 20% in a number of states and millions more likely to be released as business slows and others shut down completely, commercial construction is coming to a grinding halt across the nation, office vacancies are skyrocketing, debt defaults are in the stratosphere, foreclosures keep rising and rising, hotel occupancy keeps falling, tax revenues evaporating and bankruptcies exploding........

Maybe this is a bottom.......for now??????

Is the only way out of this mess a good honest to goodness war unless we restructure debt soon???????

Special Thanks to CalRisk and Mish's blog for the article compilation.

5 Comments – Post Your Own

#1) On April 13, 2009 at 2:49 AM, alstry (35.69) wrote:

In case some of you Fools thought healthcare was immune, from the WSJ...

Employment in health care, the only major industry outside the federal government still adding jobs, is succumbing to the recession.

In the latest sign, the president of New York City Health & Hospitals Corp. wrote Friday to community organizations as well as employees and unions at its 11 hospitals and four nursing homes, saying the agency will lay off more workers even after slashing 400 jobs last month.

"We now project that HHC's deficits will worsen, even if we are spared further state cuts," Alan Aviles wrote to the staff of 39,000. "The challenges will deepen." He blamed the job losses on state cuts in Medicaid payments to the public-health system.

Across the country, hospitals are taking financial hits. They are seeing losses in the portfolios that they rely on for investment income. The number of uninsured patients is rising. Elective procedures -- which reap big profits -- are down at a third of hospitals nationwide. Nursing homes are trimming payrolls. And with state governments continuing to cut budgets and talk of health-care reform from Washington, industry executives are preparing for even leaner times.

More than 16 million people -- one in eight workers on U.S. payrolls -- work in health care today, up from just 1% of the work force 50 years ago. Employment in health care and social assistance -- which includes hospitals, doctors offices, nursing homes and social services such as day care -- has grown by half a million jobs since the recession began in December 2007, while the rest of the economy has shed 5.1 million jobs.

But the pace of job growth in health services has slowed sharply this year. The sector added an average of 17,000 jobs per month in the first three months of the year, less than half last year's pace. Health care usually weathers downturns better than many other industries because consumers tend to cut spending on cars or clothes before they forgo trips to the emergency room or pharmacy. But this recession is the deepest in a generation.

"To the extent that health care might have been recession-proof, it is no longer," said Paul Levy, chief executive of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, a teaching hospital for Harvard University. The hospital last month announced 140 job cuts, salary freezes, and reductions in vacation allowances and retirement-fund contributions to make up a $20 million budget shortfall.

This story is consistent with the feedback I am getting from major Midwest and Southeastern Healthcare Systems.  You wouldn't believe the impact on investment losses and increasing bad debt reserves.

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#2) On April 13, 2009 at 2:55 AM, Harold71 (29.06) wrote:

From the NYtimes link

"For the first time in years, for instance, officials at Londonderry, N.H., have mailed notices to dog owners reminding them to renew their annual dog licenses, which cost $6.50 apiece, or face a $25 fine."

So much for the "Live Free or Die" state!  Walking and breathing licenses next.

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#3) On April 13, 2009 at 10:21 AM, Gemini846 (89.64) wrote:

"one in eight workers on U.S. payrolls -- work in health care today"

Tell me that doesn't scream bloat that needs to be trimmed.

I'm willing to bet that 6 in 8 of those people have no medical training whatsoever. They work in the paper pushing industry that surrounds the medical industry.  Hospitals need to provide one concise bill when you check out. Insurance pays a portion if you have it. Doctors charges are included and paid to the doctor by the hospital.

Not to mention all the cosmetic procedures. People who are starving won't be worried too much about designer B12 diet shots.

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#4) On April 13, 2009 at 10:48 AM, usmilitiadude (33.29) wrote:

When will fraudulent bankers and loan brokers be jailed? I think we need a movement (bowel), or something grassroots to flush them out. We need to talk to everyone we know until Kevin Bacon hears about it. 

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#5) On April 14, 2009 at 10:36 AM, unvrsldeflation (74.37) wrote:

Well, Alstry, it looks like if the healthcare industry joins the unemployment bandwagon you might get the restructuring you are looking for. It is absurd what America has done in its efforts to counter the national health arguments of what passes for the left in this country. In an attempt to privatize and shake the cumbersome structure in front of the public's eyes as a means of proof that their ideology is not only successful, but obviously sacrosanct the right in America has succeeded in creating one of the most bureaucratic and inefficient healthcare systems imaginable. The stench of the waste and wails of the uncovered have reached up to the throne of the God that the right likes so much to quote, so long as quoting him is in their political interest. We all, not just the rightwing, are about to find out if He is listening.

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