Ta-da.   [smiley=2vrolijk_08.gif]

The Big 3 car companies HQ'd in Detroit announced steep declines in sales for June, mainly vans and trucks, adding to the already 8.5% unemployment here, not even taking into account the many, many second and third tiered related companies around here.  Yeah, I guess a few less morning lattes and cappacinos are being sold.

I can just hear an optimistic economic reply.  "Less morning lattes being sold doesn't mean 'recession'."  Not much home brewing going on in the abandoned houses around here, either.  

Hope it's better elsewhere.

KingOfPain wrote on Jul 2^nd, 2008 at 11:50am:

negative economic domino result which is unfortunate for many, not just those in the automotive or coffee business.

Agreeable, Steve.  Neither of the abandoned houses next to me were in either business; those down the block, I don't know.


Quote:

The lost jobs of many including Starbuck employees [original post] is the real shame, not the fact that some will have to do without their "Mint Mocha Chip Frappuccino blended coffee with Chocolate Whipped Cream".

Many there are, Starbucks is one.  I thought I'd make mention of the automotive industry too, lost jobs was the similar point.  
 If the fact that follows that less caps and fraps are able to be enjoyed came across as where my sympathies lied, I apologize for the wording.  The chance quite a few of the closing Starbucks may be from around here is pretty good, relating another domino in an already bad situation, however, here, buried somewhere in the local news amid the decline of this state's biggest industry.

Steve,

You may have pointed out my narrow localized view of the economic situation.  In that, there is substance.   It's perhaps articles like this that has kept the view a bit narrow.



Quote:

On Wednesday, the state released the latest data about one of its biggest battles: job losses. Michigan has lost nearly 94,000 jobs so far this year, the labor department said. And June will complete the state's eighth consecutive year of payroll job loss, according to the University of Michigan's state economic forecast for 2008 and 2009. It's the longest stretch of job loss in Michigan since the 1929 stock market crash plunged the nation into depression, U-M economists Joan Crary, George Fulton and Saul Hymans wrote in a forecast last month. "At no time in its history, or at least as far back as the records take us, has the state endured such a drawn-out disturbance." START PRINTPAGEMultimedia File Viewing and Clickable Links are available for Registered Members only!!  You need to or END PRINTPAGE

After reading the article you posted also, this is not the foreseeable bottom.  

Best to you.  

A paradigm shift of enormous proportions and we get to live it.  Happy we got out of the market when we did. Never tasted Starbucks coffee.

Thinking of selling the truck while its still worth a little something.  Maybe buy a scooter and one of those compost tumbler things. Any takers?

Steve G

---

Sorry...posted the wrong picture..

when i was a mechanic years ago, it seemed that gm ford and chysler would design thier vehicles to need repairs after a couple years and the repairs were impractical to fix. i talked to a tech that worked at a chevy dealership and he did 18 fuel pumps in one day. all of them cavilers. i think if gm was interested in staying in business they'd quit making disposable cars.

now out in my driveway in my driveway i have a 91 gmc safari van with 230k, a 78 f-150 with 350k, and i have a 63 dodge dart in the garage. the van, loaded down with all my tile tools it got 21mpg. the big ford gets 15 mpg. the dart gets 24mpg (on the crappy 87 octane gas)  now think about that. the slant 6 i think came out in 1958 and it gets 24 mpg and the dart by todays standards is considered a midsized car. they discontinued that engine.

maybe people are starting to realize that you don't need to buy a new car every 3 years and that paying $6 for a cup of coffee is just plain stupid.

Being from Detroit I'd be more inclined to identify with the auto industry.  Excuse the alteration of industry example but job loss, income decline, could be reflected in coffee sales.



KingOfPain wrote on Jul 2^nd, 2008 at 11:50am:

On Monday, Chrysler announced plans to shut its St. Louis assembly line that builds minivans on Oct. 31. It will also cut one of two shifts at an adjoining plant that makes full-size pickups. The two cutbacks will result in the loss of 2,400 hourly jobs. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ The record high fuel prices...

These St. Louis job losses very well epitomize two problems, fuel prices Steve mentioned, and then homes are also mentioned here.



Quote:

...high gas prices and a weak economy... The seismic shift by consumers to small cars from large vehicles has blindsided virtually every automaker. Only Honda Motor, where sales rose 1 percent in June, appears to have been prepared. The Japanese automaker’s Fit subcompact nearly doubled its sales during the month, and its Civic sedan set a June record. By contrast, Toyota executives said they could not meet demand for its Prius hybrid-electric car or its small, fuel-efficient Corolla and Yaris models. The decline in housing construction has crippled sales of pickup trucks, too. START PRINTPAGEMultimedia File Viewing and Clickable Links are available for Registered Members only!!  You need to or END PRINTPAGE

About an hour from my Home is the Lordstown Plant... they are currently manufacturing GM's Cobalt. I've been hearing on the news that they will actually be putting on a third shift and hiring new employees.

It's odd because in the same news reports I've been hearing that GM is actually beating out Toyota in sales. Sadly it will cost GM billions of dollars to convert  a plant making trucks and SUVs to manufacture smaller cars....

The writing has been on the walls for years and years,,, we know that we are dependent on foreign oil... and like blind little piggies we just kept making and buying gas hogs... with each fill up I wonder what percentage is going to fund the war against america... seems that we've used our big piggy cars and trucks to drive ourselves to the edge of our own destruction...

I guess a new motto can be... Support a terrorist... Buy a Hummer.


Didn't Osama Bin Ladden once say back in 1994 something like... "America will be made to suffer when oil reaches $149.00 a barrel."

At the time he made that comment oil was significantly cheaper.

"Starve a Terrorist... Ride a Bicycle!!!"

with warm regards,
Tony