The seasonally adjusted jobs figure is likely to be good. I am not sure why Reuters is using the word "brake" in its title.
And don't tell me that everybody is flipping burgers at Burger King. Seriously, does anybody know anybody working in these places except for a young kid just starting out or a retiree looking to supplement Social Security income?
You would think, by listening to the doom-and-gloomers out there, that virtually every skilled job in this country has been shipped overseas to be done by broken-English speaking Indians and Pakistanians for pennies on the dollar while highly skilled computer programmers and engineers at home are stocking Little Debbie snack cakes at the local Wal-Mart.
Well I just ain't seeing it.
What I see instead is huge traffic jams every workday of people going to work in their shiny new Lexuses and Volvos. What I see is long waits at just about every restaurant where a family of four drops $100 on dinner without a thought and mobbed shopping malls where shoppers waddle to their cars under the weight of hundreds of dollars of impulse purchases.
What I see is lines of people queuing up at the Starbucks to lay down $3 for cup of exotic coffee. Not that the Dunkin' Donuts are hurting. You still have to wait in long lines in back of people with their very complicated orders. Damn, that reminds me, I still have to go out and get my coffee before these shops get too busy with those screaming kids tugging at their fat mommies to buy them chocolate milk, honey-dipped donuts and a box full of munchkins.
So when is our economy going to collapse? Not that I really want it to happen but if it does, I at least should be able to get to work quicker, buy my coffee right away and take my family to the Outback without suffering through a 30-40 minute wait for a table while holding those infernal square-sized pagers that lights up like a flying saucer when your table is finally ready.
We keep hearing about the "housing bubble". Sooner or later some bright analyst will recognize the SUV bubble. These vehicles becoame very popular with gas prices in the 1.25 -1.75/per gal range. With fuel prices rising to the 2.15-2.50 range people will question why they need a TRUCK to cart 3-5 kids to soccer or to pick up 3-4 bags of groceries. A good wagon (Volvo comes to mind) gets twice the gas mileage, has room for 5, and is much more pleasant to drive the 90% of the time there is only one or 2 people in the car.