Recession. What Recession???

[Tyr]

Recession? What recession? Let's party!

Despite the economic downturn and bleak employment picture, many companies are still celebrating with year-end holiday bashes.








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By Elizabeth Strott, MSN Money Party on, colleagues.
Though the economic downturn has caused many companies to scrap their annual holiday parties this year, there are plenty that will pop some corks and a few that hope to make this year's bashes better than ever.
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"Everyone always wants to have the best," said Erica Maurer, an event planner at EMRG Media in New York City. "If you can pay for it, you're going to try to get it.

Still rockin' around the Christmas tree
Some people may cringe at the idea of celebrating in this economic environment, but one expert suggests it's a good idea to get co-workers together, recession or no recession.
"These year-end celebrations are an effective way of boosting employee morale, especially in tough economic times," said John Challenger, the president of outplacement company Challenger, Gray & Christmas.
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Yahoo's (YHOO, news, msgs) Sunnyvale, Calif., employees will celebrate despite recent announcements that the company will slash 1,500 jobs and that founder Jerry Yang will step down as chief executive officer.
"To ensure the best possible rates, the venue was booked and paid for months ago, so the savings would be minimal if we were to cancel at this date," Yahoo spokeswoman Kim Rubey told CNN. "We also feel it is very important to show appreciation to our employees, who have worked extremely hard and who have made incredible progress during a challenging year."
It might be hard to come up with toasts. Yahoo's market capitalization has shrunk to about $13 billion from about $38.4 billion over the past six months, and the stock has fallen 64% over the past year.
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Tough times have put a damper on the holiday spirit in the financial sector, but there are plenty of companies going ahead with their parties, including Knight Capital Group (NITE, news, msgs) and a number of hedge funds. Knight's party will be for employees only at the Lighthouse at Chelsea Piers in New York.
We crashed a holiday party that made all hints of a recession quickly fade away. The information technology company for the financial services industry wasn't any cutting corners: It had samba dancers, a celebrity DJ and, despite the bear market, a mechanical bull.

Hmmm. I'm trying to figure out how I'm going to buy presents

 

[Tonington]

My dad got 9 $100 bills and a quart of Crown Royal. He was pretty happy with that. Two new blades for his rock saw, lol.

 

[Tyr]

On the flip side. The common folk are desperate

Broke homeowners linked to arsons

Authorities in economically stressed cities see an increase in torched houses. Is the nation's mortgage mess transforming more Americans into criminals?

By Marilyn Lewis


Arson is nothing new in Detroit. It's a time-honored weapon of the angry, vengeful, distressed and dispossessed in a city that gets hurt harder and sooner than others, making it a perfect place to spot early evidence of stress from the real-estate meltdown.
In Detroit, once the real estate bubble burst:

• House prices dropped: The region's median house price dropped 17.3% in the past four years, to $145,173. (See home prices by city.)

• Foreclosures increased: RealtyTrac reports a 65% growth in foreclosures in 2007, falling back from that 34% this year.

• Arsons increased: Detroit saw 151 arson arrest warrants in 2007 and 152 so far this year, according to city statistics.

The Detroit Fire Department can't draw a definitive link among the three but Capt. Steve Varnas of the department's arson section sees a connection: In 2005, before the housing market crashed, the city issued just 80 arrest warrants for arson -- about half the current number. Back then, he says, "things were going great," Varnas says. "There were fewer desperate people in 2004 and 2005."
Today, a year after the increase in fires began, Detroit investigators can't keep up with the arsons. There'd be even more arrests if only the arson squad had the staff, Varnas says.
Across the U.S., homeowners are searching for ways to escape from mortgages they can't pay -- or don't want to. A few are turning to arson, but it's tough to turn anecdotes into meaningful statistics. No one counts how many homeowners have torched their own homes to escape debt and evaporating home equity. Experts disagree whether such cases are rising. Consumer pressure and state laws require speedy settlements, which means insurance companies are quick to pay up and slower to complete complex arson investigations.
But signs of trouble are there if you're looking for them:

• In California, a state hit particularly hard by foreclosures, insurance companies must tell the state within 60 days if they suspect a fire is "questionable." Last year, more than 120 reports were filed, and in 14 foreclosure was named a possible factor. The previous year, just 70 reports were filed, with seven citing foreclosure, says the state insurance commissioner's office. (Not all reports become arson cases.)

• Arrest warrants for arson in Detroit rose 89% between 2005 and 2007. "We are up to our eyeballs in arsons," says Varnas, of the Detroit Fire Department. "We're not only dealing with hardened criminals. We're dealing with desperate people."

 

[Risus]

i went to the shopping mall near my home mid afternoon, to pick up something I needed, and there was not a parking place in sight. I said the hell with it and went to a little mom and pop shop instead. So there obviously are a lot of people spending....

 

[dirtylinder]

i went to the shopping mall near my home mid afternoon, to pick up something I needed, and there was not a parking place in sight. I said the hell with it and went to a little mom and pop shop instead. So there obviously are a lot of people spending....

I was shopping in Courtenay and the shelves were almost empty...the staff were going crazy trying to keep up! Crisis what crisis?

 

[Said1]

It's bad here during the week with the transit strike. When my daughter is older I can brag about walking 5km to get her Christmas presents! (even though I do that daily.....ok, 2.8.....shhhhhhhh).

 

[Kreskin]

DL, I was in the local Zellers about a week ago and it was like a ghost town. I hope things have picked up.

 

[dirtylinder]

DL, I was in the local Zellers about a week ago and it was like a ghost town. I hope things have picked up.

I was in Zellers on the 11th for a card for my sis and it was busy....you must pick the right time to shop!

 

[Tyr]

i went to the shopping mall near my home mid afternoon, to pick up something I needed, and there was not a parking place in sight. I said the hell with it and went to a little mom and pop shop instead. So there obviously are a lot of people spending....

But they are not spending the hundreds (or thousands ) that they did at this time last yr.

 

[JLM]

i went to the shopping mall near my home mid afternoon, to pick up something I needed, and there was not a parking place in sight. I said the hell with it and went to a little mom and pop shop instead. So there obviously are a lot of people spending....

I wouldn't read too much into that, now if all those people were spending cash, I'd read a lot into it. Banks can afford to extend a lot of credit at 19%. In fact I almost had to beg my bank to cut my limit back from $10,000 to $5,000- (which I would only consider charging in the event of a dire emergency where life or limb depended on it)

 

[gopher]

Lots of homeless, panhandlers, and unemployed people in Gopherland.

 

[gopher]

... and some enough right wingers will be saying, "BLAME OBAMA!"

 

[DurkaDurka]

Lots of homeless, panhandlers, and unemployed people in Gopherland.

All this has happened since the recession?

 

[Nuggler]

:-? We went out to the "big department store" in "the mall" to get some Christmas cards, and the parking lot was pretty much full. All scurry scurry and honka honka, so "what about that neat little card shop up town"...?.........says I

"Ooooooooh, says she, it's a bit pricey".........

"Ah, dang the torpedos, full freakin speed," says I~and off we went-- to find:

All the nicest cards anyone could ever want, and at a reasonable price. Some, 50% off. Stocked up, we did. No crowds. Just us and five or six more people who don't like crowds.

Bought some mean scented candles too........woooo, such a scent.

Walked on up to Timmies for a coffee. Local church doing their Christmas carol chime thing. Snowin just a bit. Not too cold. A good Canadian evening..........eh.

If there is a crisis, it's not too apparent yet, but, then again; having been in crisis ourselves, folks in crisis don't usually frequent malls or shops.

The food bank has a constant drive on, and social services, we hear, are "stretched".

I believe it.