Financial Crisis/ Recession, Impact on SP's/ Agencies/ Hobbiests
Originally Posted by ***
I mentioned a couple years ago that it was my opinion that we would see an economic downturn that might rival the Great Depression. I called it "The Greater Depression". It's happening right before our eyes! Right now! Banks are failing, the Stock Market is on the cusp of an unprecedented breakdown and people are losing their jobs and homes in unprecedented numbers. This is not the end or the middle, it is the beginning! It is a financial Armageddon. The end of the American Dream. Infact, what has happened in the last 9 months is worse than I thought it would be and I did not anticipate the Fed's ludicrous and idiotic attempt to bail out the banks (which will not trickle down to save homeowners). The US dollar went up in value this last week. Why? Only God knows! Since the crisis began a year ago, the Fed has printed nearly 2 trillion dollars to bail out the banks and the economy. Do you think that by printing 2 trillion more dollars that this makes the dollar more valuable? hahahaha! Just wait until people begin to realize the gravity of the situation. Gold will soar and the dollar will plummet to unforseen depths! Get ready for the Greater Depression. It's here. It's now! By our government's carelessness we have mortgage and damaged our children's and grandchildren's future.
Signing off on this thread,
***
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I noticed this thread posted by an American hobbiest on another site today and it reminded me of a discussion that a good friend and I were having concerning the impact of the present financial crisis .
This is going to be very painful for many and virtually all of us have been and will be adversely impacted. There is not not going to be a quick bounce back and the repercussions are likely to be with us , for quite some time to come. If one thought that the U.S. government intervention to bail out the financial industry was going to bring a halt to the slide and pain, WRONG. At one time today the Canadian and U.S. markets were down over a 10% from Friday , 13 % in October alone and with the stock market decline of over 30% YTD. N o market sector was spared and the craziness and fear was evidenced by the fact that the price of gold increased by $47 dollars on the day, while the price of the shares of gold companies declined.The Canadian markets closed at their lowest in over 3 years and a one day record market decline with the TSE down 1200 points today at one point or approximately 11%. We are indeed in uncharted and unprecedented times. In retrospect there will be a new moniker for this drastic economic period .
It will likely be well into 2010 , at the earliest, and possibly be considerably longer before we may begin to see evidence of any economic turnaround, as the ripple of the U.S. housing crisis spreads out. Only in the last few weeks, has it become more evident that other economies i.e. Europe has begun to be seriously effected. In the U. S. itself, the housing crisis, as serious as it is, is the forerunner of an overall debt crisis. Evident over the next 3 mos. as U.S. based company financial reports are released, will be signifant increases in credit card and personal loan defaults. Discover ( Discover Card) recently released it's 3rd quarter results, which confirmed that credit card defaults have indeed increased significantly and will accelerate, based upon their forecasts and sharply increased provision for bad debts. U.s . Unemployment numbers have increased sharply in the past month and will continue to climb for sometime to come. Ontario itself has already experienced a tremendous job loss in the manufacturing sector ( not related to the U.S. housing crisis) and we won't be sheltered or immune from the impact of the events going on with our largest trading partner, nor Europe and the rest of the world.
There seems little doubt now that this is and will be the most significant adverse economic time in terms of degree of magnitude and length of time since the Great Depression.
Retailer forecasts for this Christmas season were already not promising and are now being further revised ( downward) as it becomes evident that those forecasts were over optomistic.
One would expect therefore, that it is only a matter of time, if it hasn't already started to become noticeable, before the escort industry too feels the spillover due to increasing unemployment, and significantly reduced wealth/ and money available for discretionary expenditures.
If you are an SP or Agency , have you yet been impacted or do you expect to be impacted. If so , what are you able to do or do you plan to do if your volume of business declines i.e. regular customers reduce their frequency of visits.
If you are a hobbiest, how has what has occured impacted your thinking with respect to your hobbying ? i.e. do you anticipate reducing your frequency to your favorite SP's , altered your thinking with respect to locating more reasonably priced SP's / agencies, etc.
