I found myself in a lot of airports this past week (which also explains the lack of posts) … and I have to say that people have certainly not stopped flying in the midst of this recession. The Philadelphia airport was particularly crowded, even at 6AM. Columbus and West Palm Beach, less so … but still showing signs of activity.
However, I also continue to hear stories of economic hardship from people close to me. The latest example comes from one relative who was just forced to take a leave of absence from his position as an architect. It seems as though the projects have been drying up, even though the firm is heavily skewed toward government contracts.
As I have been saying all along, it’s hard to believe that all of our monetary excesses will be washed away in a few short months and that things will bounce right back where they were.
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- Another strange house hunting experience … I’ve talked about my house hunting excurisions before … but this latest one takes the cake! And if you don’t...
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I agree that there are mixed messages about the recession. I check the county court system once a week to look at the foreclose activity and it continues to go up. In my gated community of 675 homes we have 12 abandoned homes and 50 people past due on maintenance fees. I went to the Prime Outlet mall Monday July 6 and the parking lot was almost full. We saw a lot of people buying. One store rep said that they were taken by surprise at the number of people coming in to buy things on a Monday. The unemployment rate in our area is around 18% now and it is getting worse. From an investment standpoint I still like energy & pipeline MLP’s and utilities.