I spent the entire winter cowering over the fact that jobs were disappearing, so there’d be no chance to repay my debt and therefore I’d end up either dead or enslaved to some sort of neo-feudal banker.

Well, I snapped out of it and came back east this summer, and have found that there is just as much work as last year. Only it is more freelance and contract based. This is not just from personal experience. For, if the hundreds of thousands laid off each month since Fall of ‘08 were really “unemployed,” the first several million from last year would have benefits running out and therefore would be starving. Well, I haven’t seen nor heard any signs of starvation among the masses in America, therefore this “recession” seems so far to be more like a flight of propaganda fancy.

So I’m not dead or slave laboring for some neo-feudal banker. That’s just how things are, and the people who are laboring otherwise are victims of the hype.

I don’t want to get at my thesis in one silly lil’ blog comment, but I do welcome emails. So hit me up, and realize that the recession is just one silly, silly lil’ emotionally manipulative trick that steals from and drains the common working folk.

At least until the common working folk realizes that they are being played, then they wise up and the players who push the whole fear-mongering “recession” hype realize that they have to drop it before they consume themselves with their own lies.

Thanks for your comments.

This economy is hard to figure out where I have not been able to figure out if the media hurts or helps.

Have fun in New York.

Thanks again,

Luis Luarca

My husband and I have been fairly careful for many years now, but when Wall St imploded last fall we made a number of changes just to ensure that our life didn’t become part of the meltdown and since february our income seems to be going further than it had before (february). Undoubtedly part of that is because gas costs less, and we are eating in rather than going out as often as we once did, but prices at the grocery store are going down and that means I can buy more with the money I do spend. I am rather anxious to see how many young kids the grocery stores have working this summer (school is out and the college kids come home for the summer) as that may be a prime indicator in my city about how deeply into a recession we are. Interestingly enough, today I was out grocery shopping, etc and noticed ‘now hiring’ signs in 2 of the stores, but those are pretty low-level jobs, and since my husband and I are retired I have no way of knowing how people looking for professional positions are faring in this area. Maybe those of you who are currently unemployed should start looking out here .

Thanks for your post.

These are tough times and I hope everyone ends up OK.

Let me know if I can be of any help to you.

Send me an email if you like to catch-up.

Thanks again,

Luis Luarca

Thanks for the note.

I appreciate talking to you on the phone last Thursday and am glad you have an insightful view with what is happening to your business. I am excited to hear of your plans and look forward to a follow-up conversation in six months.

To question this media-generated “recession” because the hotels you recently visited were sold out is like questioning our actual dependency on foreign oil because we still have a morning rush hour. As an avid watcher of FOX, they too feel that the press harps too much on the issue in a negative way, and I agree. I do believe there is something to the fact that talking bad about the economy almost makes it a self-fulfilling prophecy, especially when it comes to Wall Street and trading. However, let’s not discount the actual damage.

As someone who was laid off in October from an industry that is not known as being “revenue generating” out of fear for the immediate future in a family-owned business, I can tell you that, compared to a similar situation two years ago (same time of year in fact), I had so many attractive offers, I waited until after the holidays to pick the most attractive. This was after two months of continual telephone calls, interviews and various promises. This time around, if I have had 10 interviews in total, I cannot think of five of them. It’s bad out there. Not only are the jobs not being offered, but the competition for the few jobs there are has increased ten-fold. In addition, I am competing with applicants who have MBA’s and PHD’s for positions that pay less than $40K, one third of the salary I made in previous years.

The number of real estate and loan-related unemployed in California equal less than 2% of the 10.5% of the unemployed. This figure also doesn’t take into account the severely under-employed, or those who have never filed for UI (like myself). Considering the Unemployment numbers were at 4% when this began, that means almost another 5% of the rate is attributed to something else. With less people working, les people are eating out, leading to less waiters and waitresses and cooks and restaurant workers. Less people working means less car wash attendants, dry cleaning employees, less barbers, less retail clerks, etc.

That’s the actual “trickle-down” effect of this economy. Talking more positively about might help in the long run, but I have a better idea that would jump-start this economy overnight. Do away with the current adminsitration and their socialist policies and adopt a business-friendly tax cutting policy, since business is what employs the masses. Once that is initiated, you start prosecuting every banker, loan executive and business owner who had been taking advantage of and falsifying loan docs’ allowing illegals and people below their means to purchase homes way above their income brackets. We need to start making examples of these thieves. THAT would generate a more positive and uplifting exchange, at least in my circle of friends.