OT -- Cluelessness of the Year award

Seen on a Happy New Year post in my other newsgroup:

"Given the way the economy was lighting up at the end of 2003, I think 2004 is going to be a really great year!"

Wonder what planet he's living on?

Celine

Reply to
Lee S. Billings
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vj found this in rec.crafts.beads, from snipped-for-privacy@mindCHEMISEspring.com (Lee S. Billings) :

]"Given the way the economy was lighting up at the end of 2003, I think 2004 is ]going to be a really great year!" ] ]Wonder what planet he's living on?

could be someone from Alaska. have a friend there [Republican, unfortunately] who swears the same thing. "everything is booming in Anchorage, so it must be in the lower 48 also".

BLEAH!

----------- @vicki [SnuggleWench] (Books)

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----------- The measure of the menace of a man is not what hardware he carries, but what ideas he believes.-- Jeff Jordan

Reply to
vj

Uh, I'm a Democrat, and live in MO. My sales were up 17% over last year. I told myself in Jan. that I was going to have a great year, and that's exactly what happened. I even did one less show than in 2002....

Barbara Dream Master

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Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower. ~~ Albert Camus

Reply to
Barbara Otterson

Unfortunately, the plural of "anecdote" is not "data". Certainly some individuals are going to be doing better than they were before; the question is, do they amount to a significant percentage of the population? Most of the leading indicators for the economy are still down or showing only slight improvement. People are losing their jobs right and left. And we just discovered that they included MORTGAGE REFINANCING in the numbers for 2003's GDP, which makes those figures effectively meaningless.

Celine

Reply to
Lee S. Billings

Good for you Barbara! I've had to cut back on the amount of time I have for lampwork, but I feel like I've been just as busy as I've been in previous years. I only did two shows, so most of my work is through my website or ebay. I wish I were organized enough that I'd kept track of hours, so I could compare what I made last year to previous years.

Reply to
Beadbimbo

I hated Statistics in college. You can pretty much make the numbers say anything you want to with some creative phrasing.

I tend to believe things go in cycles regardless of who's in power. I dilike all politicians pretty much regardless of which side they're on. Lol.

Reply to
Beadbimbo

I don't know a single person who didn't refinance in the last two years. Not one.

Becki "In between the moon and you, the angels have a better view of the crumbling difference between wrong and right." -- Counting Crows

Reply to
BeckiBead

You do now. And I know a bunch more.

However, the point is that mortgage refinancing does not involve the sale or transfer of any product at all -- it's just a reshuffling of an individual's personal finances. Therefore, it DOES NOT BELONG in the calculation of the GDP.

Celine

Reply to
Lee S. Billings

I know several people whose sales were up this year. Like me, they decided the economy wasn't going to stop them. They adjusted inventory, created new items, whatever it took. The self-employed are better off in that respect. We can make the necessary adjustments quickly. Large companies tend to be so management-heavy they are like trying to stop and turn a freight train. It take forever to get the direction altered, then twice as long to get back up to speed. Bush will do whatever it takes to make the economy look good. If he doesn't, he'll never get re-elected. Since the man has no scruples, I'm sure we'll be seeing lots of "managed" numbers this year. Barbara Dream Master

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Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower. ~~ Albert Camus

Reply to
Barbara Otterson

Yes, I was agreeing with you. Becki "In between the moon and you, the angels have a better view of the crumbling difference between wrong and right." -- Counting Crows

Reply to
BeckiBead

Okay, sorry -- I seem to have misread your original intention.

Celine

Reply to
Lee S. Billings

We didn't, we now owe the bank less than 10 grand for our mortgage. Should be paid out before the end of the year.

Reply to
melinda
[snip]

Meaning no disrespect, but the man's an idiot. I hope for the world's sake, not just USA, that he doesn't get re-elected.

Hopeing for a change of some sort in Oz as well, but the opposition aren't much better.

Reply to
melinda

vj found this in rec.crafts.beads, from Barbara Otterson :

] Uh, I'm a Democrat, and live in MO. My sales were ]up 17% over last year. I told myself in Jan. that I was ]going to have a great year, and that's exactly what ]happened. I even did one less show than in 2002....

that's great for you!

i just don't think it's that way for most of the population right now.

----------- @vicki [SnuggleWench] (Books)

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(Jewelry)
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----------- The measure of the menace of a man is not what hardware he carries, but what ideas he believes.-- Jeff Jordan

Reply to
vj

vj found this in rec.crafts.beads, from snipped-for-privacy@aol.combuybeads (BeckiBead) :

]I don't know a single person who didn't refinance in the last two years. Not ]one.

well, we didn't, doll. but we already had a 7% interest rate and low mortgage payments.

----------- @vicki [SnuggleWench] (Books)

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(Jewelry)
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----------- The measure of the menace of a man is not what hardware he carries, but what ideas he believes.-- Jeff Jordan

Reply to
vj

vj found this in rec.crafts.beads, from melinda :

]Meaning no disrespect, but the man's an idiot. I hope for the ]world's sake, not just USA, that he doesn't get re-elected.

AMEN!

----------- @vicki [SnuggleWench] (Books)

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(Jewelry)
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----------- The measure of the menace of a man is not what hardware he carries, but what ideas he believes.-- Jeff Jordan

Reply to
vj

On Sun, 4 Jan 2004 23:04:32 -0500, vj wrote (in message ):

We didn't refinance, either. No mortgage to refinance.

Thank God for that, though. The housing prices in our town have gone up so rapidly that if we didn't already have the house, we'd never be able to afford it.

One of our neighbors just had her house appraised. It's a four room house, built in the 1920's, and has a postage stamp lot. $450K. It's an okay house, but nothing spectacular. I just can't get over how crazy it's become here.

Kathy N-V

Reply to
Kathy N-V

ours, 2 bedroom condo. we bought it when the roofs needed repaired (so far, just our building of 8 units has been repaired), the retaining wall needed to be repaired, and the parking lot needs to be redone (and 1/2 of the units look like it's a motel...with the parking lot going right up to the front door...at least I have a teeny yard in front). We paid $190,000, and if those things were magically done tomorrow, we think at least $215,000.

Depending on the area in this town, 2 bedroom house with a teeny back yard, fair backyard (like my old house, Vicki, but not as much yard, slimmer), go for around $355,000. if it were San Jose, they would probably $500,000.

Palo Alto, it's not uncommon for housing to be around $1million, for probably what Kathy lives in. Nothing "special" about them...

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Mary

Reply to
meijhana

vj found this in rec.crafts.beads, from "meijhana" :

]Depending on the area in this town, 2 bedroom house with a teeny back yard, ]fair backyard (like my old house, Vicki, but not as much yard, slimmer), go ]for around $355,000. if it were San Jose, they would probably $500,000.

and i'm going to be lucky if i can get my down payment back on this one! **sigh**

----------- @vicki [SnuggleWench] (Books)

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(Jewelry)
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----------- The measure of the menace of a man is not what hardware he carries, but what ideas he believes.-- Jeff Jordan

Reply to
vj

Yes, Kathy and Vicki and whoever else (Celine, I think) you all are lucky. Shoot I know people who bought a house as little as two years ago, and refinanced. It didn't make any financial sense NOT to do it!

Becki "In between the moon and you, the angels have a better view of the crumbling difference between wrong and right." -- Counting Crows

Reply to
BeckiBead

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