[MeneMeneTekelUpharsin]

What has been surprising: not that the economy is weakening but that so many people seem to expect a soft landing, and therefore remain in denial about the seriousness of the slowdown.

Tell me ALL about it. I could write for a solid hour about the denial I see in school children who think they can avoid homework, not study, remain ignorant and STILL demand the same pay and benefits that an educated person is going to earn. Pay day has to come or all of God's laws, economic laws, etc. will have been broken.

[Youngman442002]

housing permits down...PPI up too...

My thoughts we are on the first tier of the housing crash..two more tiers to go...

[Always Right]

Get back to me when we actually have these double-digit loses the bubble heads have been telling us about. Right now we have seen about a 3.5% fall and it appears to be the bottom, which is the soft landing we have expected.

Why do bubble heads always proclaim themselves correct when they have missed out of the biggest housing boom in history and we still haven't seen anything remotely close to the crash they have been predicting. The only people in denial are the bubble heads.

[The Duke]

Tell me ALL about it. I could write for a solid hour about the denial I see in school children who think they can avoid homework, not study, remain ignorant and STILL demand the same pay and benefits that an educated person is going to earn.

I have several college-aged employees here in town and several in Argentina. I've found that the ones in Argentina, who speak English as a second language, are significantly more literate in English (and better spellers) than their counterparts here in the US.

I have no doubt that the US employees are very intelligent - however it's also very apparent that our educatational system has failed them miserably. As the person who makes compensation decisions, I can assure you that it's going to cost them dearly in terms of cold, hard cash.