Posted on 07/03/2023 7:09:15 AM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
Wall Street bankers, investors and economists have for months waffled over whether a US recession is coming. But for some Americans, the unforgiving economic pain typical during recession has already set in.
Al Brown and his fiancée faced a tough call in May when reviewing their weekly budget: What’s a higher priority, more food or dish soap?
Based in Concord, North Carolina, Brown was the main breadwinner for his fiancée and their two children. Then in April, he was let go from his job as a global director of business development at software company Cascade.
He’s since quit his gym membership and sold miscellaneous items around his home, including a computer and yard furniture, to make ends meet. His 13-year-old son quit the basketball team. While losing the family’s source of income has taken a financial toll, it’s also resulted in a mental one.
‘This is America’
“This is America, where your worth is your finances. There’s no other way to look at it,” Brown said.
Brown, 37, now spends his days scouring the internet for jobs or reaching out to potential connections. After filing over 600 applications, only a handful have produced interviews, he says.
That’s a far cry from the labor-market strength depicted in government figures. Despite the Federal Reserve’s punishing rate hikes there have been robust job gains in recent months and a low 3.7% unemployment rate in May.
Investors and economists have been expecting a recession since last year as the Fed raised interest rates to tame inflation. That triggered companies to focus on profitability over growth, which meant cutting spending and reducing their workforces.
(Excerpt) Read more at channel3000.com ...
“And the economy has had some buffers: the savings Americans accumulated during the pandemic and the delay of student loan payments. But student loan repayments restart later this year, and savings accounts are drying up.
Some experts have pushed recession bets further out as the economy has proved more resilient than expected. Bank of America Chief Executive Brian Moynihan told CNN last week that he expects a mild recession early next year, rather than the late 2022 recession many have predicted.”
“But nearly 50 million people also quit their jobs during the two years following the pandemic’s onset. That means that laid-off Americans were often able to find a new job quickly due to a hot job market. No such cushion exists now.”
It arrived at our house around 1/21/2021. Down hill ever since. 🤔
Maybe, Diana. Or the stolen election will seem all the more awesome!
We had a relative ask us for money in the past few days—they are good people and have never asked for a dime before—their small business is getting crushed because many of their customers are not paying their bills.
And he wonders why he was let go from a "Business Development" position. He can't even develop business for himself.
Given all the lies the government has told to the public via the television and social media, I have a theory that our economy has been in recession for quite some time.
It’s not inconceivable to me the Government would be lying and providing false economic information to the public to show slow or moderate economic growth with low unemployment as a way to show, “look Biden’s economy is working”.
Interest Rates are way up compared to a couple of years ago, numerous banks have failed, massive layoffs especially in the tech industry get announced often times daily and somehow the economy is still basically healthy.
Any reporting by the MSM counter to a healthy economy is IMO a way to ease Biden out and open the door to an alternative, perhaps Gavin Newsom or someone else.
He was “global director of business development”...for a software company...guess he has no other “skills?” Seems there are sooo many help wanted signs....
In other words, he spent most of his time playing “Buzzword Bingo”.
Now if you make $50,000 then the reductions are 20% and 23.8%! Anyone got an extra 20% in their household budget?
Biden’s America...
Democrats hate Americans...especially those who foolishly keep voting for them.
Wake up folks!
probably made really good money $200k a year and spent every last cent of it.
This is a one data point article although most folks know the recession has been here for a while.
The PMI ( Purchasing Managers Index ) has been negative for at least 6 months.
All the businesses are battening down the hatches, laying off higher-paid employees at an alarming clip. It's downsizing with a vengeance.
Looking grim. I've even tried public government employment jobs — “overqualified”.
Thank you, Joe.
I was watching a video the other day where Victor Davis Hansen was interviewed. He stated something that rang true. Most college educated people these days don’t know how to work. That was said in the context of VDH being a farmer where he needed to solve problems on the farm, do things that he had no experience or any education and required hard, often dirty work. Yes, skills and determination.
I guess this guy gives up because he wants an exact replacement for his sorry ass job. By the way, what does a global director of business development do? I have found that when you can’t determine what someone does from his title, he doesn’t do anything. It doesn’t sound like this guy sells software from his title. He doesn’t engineer software. So what does he do?
Yeah, well, those could be faked, so...
Have wondered...so we are in a Recession...heading to a Depression. I pray you find something better.
Stop buying food and you won't have dishes to wash. Duh. /s
“This is America, where your worth is your finances. There’s no other way to look at it,” Brown said.
ping
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