News U-Can Use

Unemployment Surges - Could you be next?

2009-02-06T08:29:00.000-08:00

By Joe Nunez

U.S. unemployment surges to 7.6 percent, that's nearly 600,000 job losses for the month of January. The amount of employers slashing jobs will continue its rise as consumers continue to retract, and further seep into a "bear like" winter slumber. CNN recently posted a list of companies that have either already made cuts, or plan to layoff employees soon. This will only add fuel to the fire, and if you think your job is safe, then maybe you should think again.

According to CNN, businesses from all sectors will be cutting 322,769 more jobs from their workforce. You can view this post here to see if your employer is on this list. As consumers continue to retract, and with unemployment on the rise, how long do you think it will be before your employer sends out the dreaded pink slip? Even if you are employed in the medical field, once thought to be a recession proof sector, you too could soon feel the wrath of this recession/depression. With several states facing huge budget deficits, due to a loss in tax revenues and bad investments, they can no longer keep funding programs such as medicaid and other health care related services (already being seen in California).

I've personally talked to people in the medical field who have either lost hours, been stripped of certain perks like PTO hours, or have seen their co-workers laid off. This is not an easy fix, and with our government spewing its toxic stimulus plan, this can only get worse. We need to let the market correct itself, but instead our government continues to borrow money to spur fake growth. They are propping up big business while leaving taxpayers on the hook for the bill. These businesses were irresponsibly ran, and should be left alone to either restructure or fail. Look at the big 3 car manufactures for example. They received billions of dollars from the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), and for what? To prop up a company that's drowning in debt and lacking the ingenuity to stay competitive. Letting them fail would hurt in the short term, but they most likely would've been bought out by another company or reemerged as a stronger one.

Instead, we just sit, and watch, while taxpayer dollars get poured into propping up businesses on the verge of failure with the contingency of more government oversight/socialism, but "hey, everything is OK. We just saved thousands of jobs, and created an avenue for growth", but destroyed capitalism all in one swoop without any transparency to the American people. Employees should have been let go, so that they could have found work in areas that have true demand and growth, such as alternative energy, where America could lead the rest of the world, manpower is just simply being wasted in an already sunken ship.

I guess the real question here is - how long can we continue to try to borrow and spend our way out of this mess before we have a collapse of our currency, or foreign investors refuse to buy our Treasuries and dump the dollar? Greed, printing, borrowing, our consumptuous appetite, and lack of productivity is exactly why we are in this mess. But yet our government continues its mentality of, we spent and borrowed our way into the biggest deficit in history, what should we do? SPEND MORE MONEY!

The next wave of foreclosures (Florida/Charlotte County newsletter)

2009-02-06T06:47:00.000-08:00

By Joe Nunez

Is there a glimmer of hope for Charlotte County? That seems to be the question that weighs on residents' minds. Charlotte County's unemployment rate for the month of December 2008 was at a jaw dropping 9.9%, far above the state's rate of 7.6%. Coupled with declining home values, Florida's budget deficit, and the unsettling question of where our nation is going, brings little hope for a turn around soon.

Although real estate sales seem to be picking up, there is another evil that looms around the corner. Alt-A loans, or as we like to call 'liar loans' or 'ninja loans' (no income, no job, no assets), were thought to be less risky for lenders. Alt-A recipients were supposedly more qualified than sub-prime borrowers, and this is where the fallacy lies. Alt-A mortgages were given to consumers with decent credit, but who may not of had typical documentation proving their finances.

According to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York as of December 2008, 43.6% of Floridians with Alt-A loans have at least one late payment in the last 12 months. Let us not forget that more than half of the Alt-A universe is going to see, or already has seen, their interest rates reset. These toxic loans, which exceed the number of sub-prime loans will continue to reset in 2009, 2010, and with the largest percentage of 36.7% set to adjust in 2011.

Poor government policies and the push for home ownership, along with the expanded money supply caused by the Federal Reserve, carved a path for easy credit, greed, corruption, and manipulation.

So where does all this leave us? Where's that glimmer of hope? Let us look at the other side of the coin. With the surplus of foreclosures on the market, and possibly more to come, there is opportunity! For one, I am seeing people who were struggling to find employment, find work through these distressed properties. Cash buyers and investors are capitalizing on current market conditions.

Most homes purchased are sold as is, and in desperate need of some sort of maintenance, therefore creating jobs. Second, historically low interest rates, great inventory, and new homeowner incentives creates great buying opportunities. With home values still on the decline, they become more and more affordable in the eyes of those who never thought it possible of owning a home at a realistic price.

Our Financial System -

2009-02-06T06:29:00.000-08:00

By Joe Nunez

Did you know that the Federal Reserve is not a government entity, but a private bank owned by bankers? They print money out of thin air, then lend it to us and our government with interest. What a great thing these elite bankers got going - the ability to create money out of nothing and charge us interest on worthless paper.

This is why we have income tax. The money that the government borrows from the Federal Reserve to fund its useless programs and wars will be paid back by taxpayers with interest. Obama's stimulus plan will not carry us out of this recession, but cause a depression. He is simply taking money out of our hands, your children's hands, and your grandchildren's hands.

Our forefathers came here to escape the central bank of England and its controlled economy. In fact, Thomas Jefferson once said " The central bank is an institution of the most deadly hostility existing against the Principles and form of our Constitution. I am an Enemy to all banks discounting bills or notes for anything but Coin. If the American People allow private banks to control the issuance of their currency, first by inflation and then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the People of all their Property until their Children will wake up homeless on the continent their Fathers conquered ."

We as Americans are the backbone of this economy. Our entrepreneurial spirit has created the majority of employment in this country. If Obama's plan is passed, we will only be stifling true growth. The money that we, our children, and grandchildren would have had to start that small business, invent that new gadget, or fuel true growth will now go to the the elite Federal Reserve bankers with interest.

They are creating a two tier society where the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. It's time to wake up America and get our heads out of the sand. Stop watching useless TV shows, and accepting the news media as truth. You are simply being entertained because you are no good to the system if you have the ability to be a critical thinker.