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Russ Henke
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Author: |
Russ Henke |
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3/2/2007 6:15 AM |
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Thoughts of interest to COFES and COFES attendees |
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"Slowdown" or "Recession" ?? |
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By Russ Henke on
4/25/2008 6:31 AM
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Despite mounting evidence to the contrary, the current administration continues to deny that a recession is abroad in the land. Just a few days ago, Bush 43 rejected claims that the nation was in a recession, instead saying only, “We are in a slowdown.”
If the economic facts in my April 23, 2008 blog entry were not enough, here are some more depressing data points on the US economy --- data just released late on April 24:
Sales of new homes dropped by 8.5% last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 526,000 units, the slowest sales pace since October 1991 (during Bush 41’s reign). The median price of a new home sold in March 2008 dropped by 13.3% compared with March 2007, the biggest year-over-year price decline since a 14.6% fall in July 1970 (during Nixon’s first term).
New home sales were down in all regions of the country in March 2008: Northeast minus 19.4%, West minus 12.9%, Midwest minus 12.5%, and South minus 4.6%.< ...
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The US Economy -- not so good... |
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By Russ Henke on
4/23/2008 4:55 PM
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Well, the US economy sure hasn’t improved any since my last blog entry in February 2008. Unfortunately, we are all sinking deeper into W’s second recession.
Rising gasoline prices again tightened the squeeze on US drivers on Earth Day April 22, 2008, jumping for the first time to an average $3.50 a gallon of regular across the country - with no sign of relief. (Drivers here in the San Francisco Bay Area paid an average of $3.98 a gallon for regular).
Crude oil set a record for the sixth day in a row on April 22, this time closing at $117.48 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Diesel prices at the pump also struck a record of $4.20 a gallon, according to AAA and the Oil Price Information Service. That will add add to truckers' costs and drive up the price of food, clothing and other goods shipped by truck.
It’s difficult to find good news anywhere across the U ...
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Gusset Plates |
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By Russ Henke on
1/15/2008 11:47 AM
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Our family is planning a modest addition to our relatively small house in California. We plan to utilize internal steel beams similar to those uniquely used in the existing house, built in 1995. We believe the steel cage created by these beams adds seismic stability. However, during the recent planning for the addition, we discovered that the building code in our city has changed since 1995. The steel gussets used where multiple beams are joined must now be designed per a newly adopted code with far stricter strength standards than before.
We are gratified that the building code now has these stricter requirements, even though the CAD software used to design the original steel gussets in 1995 is identical to the CAD software used now.
Because the design of our modest steel cage is no better than the skill and up-to-date code knowledge of the engineer/architect using the CAD software. It has always been thus – CAD software, old or new, is no substitute for the exp ...
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Getting Work Done in Virtual Worlds |
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By Russ Henke on
1/12/2008 11:41 AM
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“Forrester Research is predicting in its “Getting Work Done in Virtual Worlds” report that in five years 3-D Internet will be as important as the Web now is to businesses,” according to SandHill.com. The "Getting Work Done in Virtual Worlds" report released by Forrester during the first week of January 2008 concludes that executives should begin investigating and experimenting with virtual worlds soon because of their promise for remote collaboration, training and the ability to build and share 3-D models.
The virtual model is especially important for professionals like surgeons, architects, engineers and product designers, who use CAD models or visualization systems to explore or create projects, Forrester said. In virtual meetings, these professionals can import models for discussion and modification, according to the report. "You can release near-final designs to a limited group of external users and solicit feedback before starting fabrication," it said.
< ...
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December 2007 US Jobs Report – A Mediocre 18,000 |
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By Russ Henke on
1/5/2008 10:34 AM
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As follow up to the December 9, 2007 blog entry in this space, the Labor Department reported January 4, 2008 that only a measly 18,000 net non-farm US jobs were added in December 2007, the fewest since August 2003. At the same time, the nation's overall unemployment rate rose to 5% (from 4.7%), its highest level since November 2005.
US manufacturing continued its ongoing loses, with 31,000 US manufacturing jobs disappearing in December. The health of the manufacturing sector is key to revenue growth in the US CAD/CAM industry.
For the third consecutive month, wages grew slower than the pace of inflation, cutting into the real income of many US workers. But the FED will likely reduce interest rates still further to boost the deteriorating stock market, and ignore its alleged commitment to control inflation.
In the face of the above data, Bush 43 publicly said January 4, 2008 that the “nation’s economy is strong and solid” and he made no mention of the at ...
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Fears Worsen for W’s Second Recession |
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By Russ Henke on
12/28/2007 1:35 PM
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New-home sales in the US fell 9% in November from October to a seasonally-adjusted annual sales pace of 647,000, the US Commerce Department reported December 28, 2007. Economists were predicting November 2007 new-home sales to decline by only 1.8%. Over the last 12 months, new-home sales in the US have plunged by more than 34%, the biggest annual drop since 1991 (i.e. under Bush 41).
"I think you can classify what we are seeing in the housing market as a crash," said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Economy.com, according to the AP. "Sales and home prices are in a free fall. The downturn is intensifying."
Fed by the persistent lack of federal regulation in the mortgage market, the housing debacle has significantly increased the odds that the US economy will soon fall into a recession, the second one under Bush 43. We recall that his daddy presided over only one recession.
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News Independence? |
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By Russ Henke on
12/19/2007 8:07 AM
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The five-person Federal Communications Commission approved a controversial new rule to allow broadcasters in the twenty largest US media markets to also own a newspaper. The existing ban against this practice had been in place for thirty-two years. The White House has already pledged to veto any congressional action that seeks to change the decision.
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Final US Jobs report of the Year – Thank Goodness! |
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By Russ Henke on
12/9/2007 6:59 AM
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The November 2007 jobs report was “the clearest sign yet that the American economy was headed for a substantial slowdown.” Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Economy.com, said that the November job creation numbers are “indicative of a very fragile US economy that will come undone unless conditions improve soon.”
Meanwhile, the average hourly wages among rank-and-file US workers (i.e. the vast majority of us Americans) was just $17.63 last month, simply emphasizing the long-term erosion of spending power for most American workers in the last seven years.
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Economic news.... |
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By Russ Henke on
11/23/2007 6:06 PM
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Crude-oil futures ended November 23, 2007 at the highest-ever closing level. Crude oil for January 2009 delivery settled up 89 cents at $98.18 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The session touched an intraday high of $98.45. Crude ended the week up $4.34, or 4.4%.
The US dollar also helped boost oil as it touched a new historic low of $1.4966 per euro before “recovering” to $1.4834. A sliding dollar makes oil cheaper for buyers holding other currencies. These buyers are likely to increase demand and bid up oil prices. You think?
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More news in the Rich-get-Richer series… |
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By Russ Henke on
11/21/2007 7:34 AM
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On November 19, 2007 from Bloomberg News comes word that shareholders in the securities industry are having their worst year since 2002, losing $74 billion of equity. But it appears that won't prevent Wall Street from paying record bonuses for 2007, totaling almost $38 billion. That's billion with a "b", folks!
By way of comparison, Bloomberg News reported that the industry's 2007 bonuses are larger than the gross domestic products of Sri Lanka, Lebanon or Bulgaria. The average $201,500 bonus is more than four times the $48,201 median household income in the US last year, according to US Census Bureau statistics.
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