News, articles, topics and information about the economy, jobs, employment and products, manufacturing and proudly the best products in the world. American goods produced by U.S. companies of the USA and what’s going on and what’s  the story, Jerry. Reason of all the jobs lost, laid off and built in U.S. products United States could not save new manufacturing jobs. Our consumers buy U.S. products and are needing  jobs with the union label in factories and construction industry. Our workers majority are Baby Boomers or baby boomer built economy and has baby boomer effects on economy as a changing society which is a loss of jobs. Building with pride, built with pride and proud to be American is what’s the story about. How to deal with being laid off with no work and a lost job. Search and look for a new career that many can’t find in the job search in New York City, New Jersey that were lost from WTC on 911, world trade center, twin towers, attack, all states. The new president will bring change to government and work on incentives to strengthen our economy as soon as he is sworn in. babyboomer news American produced

Economic Slowdown, Recession 2008, and Deflation, The Story

The story is….as the U.S. economy continues to take a downturn many of us are experiencing the effects of the tightening credit by banks and seeing foreclosures in our neighborhoods from home mortgage defaults. In recent months many terms have been used to label the condition of our economy like; economic slowdown, credit crunch, financial crisis, consumer confidence, slump, recession, global slowdown, recovery, falling consumer demand and others. With this being a presidential election year in the U.S., most politicians and economic advisors have been reluctant to admit that our economy was in serious trouble and is now showing signs of depression in October 2008. This downturn began in early 2007 soon after the oil crisis started and gasoline prices skyrocketed from which the oil companies blamed on Hurricane Katrina. Our economy is flexible and can adjust to short term price increases and inflation on its own, but it can not compensate for a 50% increase that is sustained over a year without having penalty. The major oil companies created the gas crisis to challenge the limits of the market price as the price of oil continued to climb higher than the consumer could bear. The majority of consumers have fixed spending budgets and if there are sharp price increases in products they need, such as gas, it creates a shortage of money in the consumer’s wallet. If your budget allows $100 a month for gasoline and now it costs $200, the extra $100 must be made up; if there is no surplus in your budget, something else will be sacrificed. The world’s economy revolves around credit available to businesses and consumers alike and the recent tightening of credit has disabled the purchase of products in the marketplace.

The 2nd contributing factor was the failing of banks and defaulting mortgage companies which caused a home mortgage crisis. Due to the practice of mortgage selloffs, the unregulated lending institutions carelessly gave credit to knowingly under qualified borrowers who were bound to default with any decline in income. The economy is a balanced mix of many factors and when that ratio is interrupted or offset a correction must be made. The players were in position over a year ago feeding the downturn as they are two of the largest cash flow businesses in the world, oil & banking. They both took their turn beating up the American customer on Main Street. The story today is something big has happened and is affecting the economy worldwide, causing a rippling effect around the globe.

The foreign markets are experiencing the same credit crunch as here in the U.S. and because our economy is global. If Uncle Sam has financial problems, the world has problems. Executives of large corporations in America and around the world are concerned about the bank defaults, tightening of credit and the impact of banks cutting back on lending money for working capital to businesses. Companies like Microsoft pleaded to our government to act fast to restore credit monies and support the financial markets. If consumers and businesses alike are not able to get credit, the economic systems stops and deflation will take place. As consumer confidence deteriorates, their spending habits will change from spend to conserve. Business stops expanding, creditors stop lending and consumers stop spending. These conditions can cause an interruption to the flow of money (credit) on the street, which will prolong and deepen the recession.

What is the difference at the consumer level during an inflation period compared to a deflation period? During inflation, the consumer can have debt, even if their income is low they are able to get credit to survive the bad time until their salaries adjust with inflation. During deflation, the consumer who is in debt cannot borrow money or get credit as the lenders stop lending. If the consumer has no backup reserve funds to get thru this period, they are at risk of losing their assets. The economy is very close to entering a deflation phase as credit tightens, unemployment rises and home values continue to drop. The banking bailout is only the tip of the iceberg.

During the 1990’s many homeowners went into debt purchasing new houses and real estate along with other high ticket items. This type of credit spending became the trend and the demand for new higher priced homes and resales rose sharply resulting in price increases that were unrealistic. During this time there was a free flow of credit available from lending institutions and most anyone could qualify for a new mortgage. Homeowners were amazed at the amount their houses were appraised for and the amount of mortgage credit they qualified for. Homeowners decided they had to sell to reap the profits and invest in a new home, little did they understand that this bubble would eventually break and the inflated equity would disappear leaving them with nothing. Everyone felt they were a winner, as a home buyer you could borrow up to 80% of the inflated value of a house, if you were the seller you made a windfall profit with the too good to be true pricing. If you owned a home and weren’t interested in selling, you tapped the inflated equity in your home as it became your Dream Come True ATM Machine. When we think back about the past 10 years it was a fantasy - like economy and we were numb to high prices because of the unlimited credit available. The home equity loan or line of credit was used to pay for - cars, 2^nd properties, vacations, cruises, home improvements, college tuition, weddings and other luxuries.

Facing Deflation

Deflation is caused when a combination of economic events occur in the economy like a tightening of credit and major failures in the markets months before. Deflation has never occurred during our baby boomer years and the majority of the income generating population has no idea of what to expect nor do they realize how serious the situation is. There are only two recorded deflation eras from the past, in 1835 to 1842 and again in 1929 to 1932, both of which followed major credit expansion periods. Japan experienced a similar deflation economy during the 1980’s which took almost 10 years to recover. Different than recessions in the past, this will hit close to home affecting families and friends of many of us as the effects will be swift. 

Gas Crisis 35 Years Later.. No Difference -  Who Remembers..

Gas Crisis of 1973   by Jerry       

The plans for the first gas crisis started in August of 1973 as the Arab Nations would prepare for war with Israel. On October 17, 1973 the OAPEC (Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries ) who were the Arab members of OPEC(Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries) announced they would no longer ship oil to countries that supported Israel, like the United States. Around this time OPEC members agreed to use their power over the world and become the world price setting instrument to raise the prices of oil throughout the world. OPEC cut production of oil and placed an embargo on all deliveries of crude oil to the Western world, including the United States and the Netherlands. Not many Americans really understood what was happening to our economy as most  thought that the oil companies were U.S. owned, very few people realized then that we no longer were a super power of oil production but rather a crude oil whore that sold out long ago. Little did we know this was the beginning of the end of an important segment in the American lifestyle as we knew of in the past. This would be the start of a major change in the U.S. automobile market and ripple through our economy to affect all Americans in ways that could not be imagined. This opened America’s front door to a new wave of imported vehicles and left the U.S. auto manufacturers watching the compact cars drive by their showrooms as they could not change their traditional ways of production fast enough to produce higher MPG vehicles. The new generation of auto buyers who were part of the baby boomer generation got pleasure from going against the U.S. establishment and purchased foreign autos and mocked America along the way, what they didn’t understand was that they were putting their brothers & fathers and eventually themselves in the unemployment line contributing to the loss of many American jobs. Needless to say we faced a recession that was a start of things to come for many years ahead.

Gas Crisis of 2005-2008….

If you can remember the date of about August 23, 2005 on a typical summer day the headline news were warnings of a large tropical storm approaching the Gulf of Mexico. This tropical storm would strengthen to be named -   Hurricane Katrina, and on August 29th Katrina would slam the Gulf of Mexico and surrounding coastal areas. After the hurricane was over there would be some damage to offshore oil drilling rigs in the Gulf. The oil companies who owned these rigs would blame Hurricane Katrina and Mother Nature for the next record setting $$$price increase of oil products in our history. After all a gouging price increase was long overdue for the oil companies and this was the perfect time to make windfall profits as they did in the 70’s and this storm would give an opportunity to test how much the American economy could bear.  If you remember the first news reports during Katrina reported that oil production suffered slightly and these oil stations produced only 8-10% of our demand and at that time prices and supply was of no concern. Well within a few days after the storms passed, the oil companies kept raising the percentage of our dependence on these couple of damaged rigs. When said and done the companies claimed that these drilling rigs were producing 25% or more of our oil demand and the U.S. needed every drop of that oil and we would face a serious shortage immediately until new sources were found and repairs were made. As in 1973, the owners of the oil companies would prove again to us who really owns the oil world

 What’s The Story Jerry About The American Dream?

A letter from Mr. & Mrs. John  Doe , 123 Main St. Anytown, USA.

               Hi, my name is John Doe and I am 57 and my wife Jane is 54, let us tell you our story of an American Dream. You see we both grew up in a neighborhood where there were 3 bedroom cape cods & ranch houses, some with American made brick fronts, and every family had one American automobile and maybe an American Zenith black & white television – with 13 English speaking channels to watch, our mothers were housewives and took care of – getting us off to school which most of us walked and some got on GMC buses, making our lunch on American Bread, cleaning the house with American made products, helped us with school work, did the wash in a GE washer & ironed our clothes with a GE iron, made supper on an American Tappan gas range and taught us manners. Our fathers went to work and made decent salaries enough to raise 3 kids, owned a house with a VA no money down mortgage, own 1 car, take vacations in America, buy American poultry, beef, American caught fish and other foods, American made clothes and entertainment for the whole family, with enough money left over to go to the local bank to deposit CASH in a pass book savings and Christmas club account. Both of our parents went thru the Great Depression in the 1930’s as children, our families fought generations of wars to defend America and worked very hard for what they had. You see Jane and I, and most Baby Boomers, were not satisfied with that picture of life and wanted to live for the day, not worry about tomorrow, we were going to change the world and do better than our parents. I remember arguing with my father when I bought (not leased) my first car with the money I earned from selling newspapers and working part time after school. It was a new style imported car and my dad tried to talk me out of buying it explaining to me that for every imported car sold an American loses his job forever, and by not buying a Ford, GM, or American made auto would eventually hurt our economy and I laughed at him and replied that the foreign cars are cheaper and made better, and my dad laughed back and said “son – cheap today expensive tomorrow”.

Hey, wake up its 2008 and Here’s The Story….

Look at all of those new, big, beautiful houses for sale in America.

Hello, Mr. Mortgage Broker, remember me, John Doe. I was hoping could you take this house off my hands, it is a – beautiful custom built 2 story house, great neighborhood, no neighbors (they all have foreclosed), with 3800 sq.ft. living space, 18 zone heat & AC, full finished basement, custom imported kitchen cabinets, imported granite countertops, top of the line imported appliances, imported designer ceramic tile floors & Brazilian hardwood floors throughout, 5 bedrooms, 3 & 1/2 baths with all imported plumbing  fixtures, 3 car garage with imported door openers, and fully landscaped by foreigners or illegal immigrants. Mr. Mortgage Broker can I trade this for   a 1 bedroom pre fabricated townhouse somewhere in the country? Please Mr. Mortgage Broker I really need a place to live for me and my wife. We didn’t realize 5 years ago that the housing market would collapse and there would be no jobs for us here in N.J. and we spent all of our money and borrowed up to our necks to move up to the ultimate American Dream. Please, please Mr. Mortgage Broker we will also throw in all of our imported designer furniture and contents, even the imported cappuccino machine, and you can also have our new ultra designer imported stainless steel gourmet cooking center outdoor grill because we have no where to move it, and we can’t afford a storage facility, do you know they are charging as much for garage rental as our first house mortgage cost. Yes Mr. Mortgage Broker we did ask our children if they could help pay but they are already in debt to their ears, working 2 part time jobs, with no health insurance and they can’t afford a place to live so they sleep in our leased imported SUV that we hid from the repossession company last year, they park it at the W-Mart parking lot and move it around every few days. And yes we did have a large inheritance from our parents but we spent all that money on things we deserved like 2 imported vehicles – 1 sport model, 1- SUV with 24” GPS screen, imported jewelry, imported watches, imported designer clothing, a vacation villa in CanCun, 6 European and Caribbean cruises, golf memberships in all the islands, international vacations, cosmetic surgery in France, you know the kinds of things every American family has to have. Please Mr. Mortgage Broker take this Big White Elephant House from us today so we can start a new life, we are near retirement and we have no pension or healthcare, we figure the state retirement plan will take care of us, so we buy a New Jersey Lottery ticket every day with our extra money. Yes Mr. Mortgage Broker I understand your company is subsidized with foreign bonds, foreign stocks and trusts and that’s ok with us because me & Jane are used to buying imported products from foreign countries and it makes sense why shouldn’t we use imported money – kind of like designer cash we like it. After all the foreigners take care of us and their money is probably better quality than U.S. money. One more thing Mr. Broker do you think you could buy us a Happy Meal with a free large soft drink if I give you my designer C imported handbag, I won’t need it anymore. Yesterday we traded a Swiss imported R watch for a barrel of chicken with all the fixins from Kentucky Fried Chicken, and there are still 2 legs and a biscuit left for breakfast.

Mr. Mortgage Broker as soon as you finish the deal on this house I am sure we can do business in the future when we re-qualify to buy another house again. You see since I lost my management job with the Big Blue American Company that downsized last year, and the Large American Company that Jane worked for closed up after global consolidation changes 2 months ago, it will take some time for us to get back on our feet again. My dad just turned 83 and is a store greeter at big W-Mart store. Dad says since Jane has a college degree from 1972 she should qualify for a job at the auto parts register at Wm-Mart. And for me, my unemployment ran out and I don’t have a college degree, but I have a few contacts and I keep searching for a good job. One of my sons best friends told me he would help me fill out a job application at HI-Depot and he will talk to the night assistant manager Tony. I should be able to work part time at night unloading forklifts. HI-Depot is a big company and as soon as I become a full time employee I will qualify to pay for 50% of the cost for my health insurance and $2500 deductible, as an added benefit they will offer dental & eyeglass coverage which I qualify to pay for myself in full for coverage. And if things work out I can participate in the 401k plan and put in as much money as I want for retirement. Of course this doesn’t cover Jane’s health insurance but she looks healthy to me and I don’t think she needs insurance since I am the breadwinner.

Rebuilding WTC - the Freedom Tower

September 11, 2001, still sometimes hard to believe this terrorist attack happened on our soil and killed thousands of innocent people. Time moves quickly for those uninjured and very slowly for those who are healing and lost loved ones. From this day on New York City and the all the United States would not be quite the same safe land as we remember. Not only would we have to heal our wounds and pick up the pieces, we would also embrace in a closeness with our fellow Americans to weed out terrorism and raise our awareness. As our culture teaches us to carry on to become stronger and protect our freedom we would start the process of rebuilding our society and replace the Twin Towers with a new Freedom Tower. This one block of real estate is the most unique in the world and now a historical reminder of what we stand for. To think it would be a small task to rebuild the towers would be a gross understatement. For many Americans this will be the new symbol of our pride, independence and freedom which we all are proud to be a part of. We proved to the world how resilient we are and that terrorists cannot change our optimistic outlook on life as Americans.

The WTC construction site is one of the most active projects in the world and is watched by the eyes of each American family who had lost loved ones on September 11th. Each and every worker on this site has their own story to tell of where they were on 911 and their own philosophy of why the attack happened and how it changed New York City and the world. With my involvement in this construction project I can tell you first hand of how proud the workers are to be here on this historic rebuilding of World Trade Center. As construction continues the foundations for the new buildings you can see the outlined shape of the new landscape to be, as the majestic tower again will rise proud in the sky. Just as the men and women who built the original Twin Towers were proud to be a part of an American landmark, history will repeat itself with a new monumental icon, "Freedom Tower".

The new Freedom Tower having a square base smaller than the original one, will be 1,776 feet tall with a lit mast. There will be an observation deck at 1362', the original height of the Twin Towers. The new tower will have a total of 2.6 million square feet of office, retail and restaurants with PATH and subway access. It will be a world landmark and a site to be proud of by all Americans in remembrance of 911. The costs of this project keeps escalating and for good reason due to its massive size and complexity. We are all anxious for the completion of Freedom Tower and the day we will once again have this symbol of our independence and freedom in the sky.