Double Dip Economy ?? - Lateral-g Forums

Garage Dog 65 · #1 01-12-2010, 06:43 PM

Economists and pundits are saying we are in a double-dip economy now…

Looks like the racing community will have another round of shop closings and layoffs during this off season. Here in Indy, the Motor Sports Park is losing even more teams and businesses. Don Prudhomme lost their sponsors and closed this week.

http://www.snakeracing.com

**Ketzer** · #2 01-12-2010, 06:59 PM

Our local drag, road course and oval went belly up also. Memphis Motorsports Park.

radrambler · #3 01-12-2010, 07:40 PM

that sucks

never thought THE SNAKE WOULDNT BE DRAG RACING..
figured he would have been able to get someone to throw some money at him after his history in the sport..Kenny did it..

good luck to all the newly unemployed people ..it sucks

Tom

ccracin · #4 01-13-2010, 05:07 AM

Yeah, it's bad. We may be loosing the last asphalt short track in our area. That will mean both tracks I raced at will be done.

wiedemab · #5 01-13-2010, 05:30 AM

I went to see Martin Feldstein (Harvard Economics Prof.) speak at an Economic Club of Indiana event up at Eli Lily a month or so ago and he warned of this exact thing - the double dip.

The stimulus "propped" the economy back up, but unfortunately the base isn't there to support this level of economic activity and it may falter again.

He advised the monitoring of the personal savings rate as an indicator of where we are headed. He was a bit vague on the exact numbers, but if I remember correctly - if the personal savings rate rose to near 6-8% we would be in trouble. If it stayed below 4-5% we may be OK, and if it went to around 1-2% we may see a significant recovery. There is a fine line between a savings rate that allows for healthy economic growth and unhealthy growth - case in point the mess we are in now.

The other problem is that the data that I seen on the Personal Savings Rate is lagging, so we won't likely know (from the data) that it's gotten worse until we already know it from experience.

http://www.bea.gov/BRIEFRM/SAVING.HTM

There are obviously way too many variables to consider, but I thought I'd toss this one out there.

**GregWeld** · #6 01-13-2010, 08:16 AM

I'm involved with a few things - and business is booming...Up Huge....

I think the "dip" and your economic outlook is steeped in "regional" issues and industry related issues. If you're in the "rust belt" - you are certainly seeing the bottom of the glass. So many businesses were (note the past tense) advertising based for support... and that advertising gets cut 10 or 15% and the "fringe" will be the first to fall.

Business is measured this year: Flat is the new UP. LOL. However, some businesses are humming along and actually expanding. Autos would not be one of those... and these days - even an actual manufacturer could be doing quite well - but the employment is in China or India, NOT in the plants that were union shops based in the US. In my area - Boeing is a huge manufacturer... but their new plant is going to the Carolinas where the workers will get substantially less than the same workers here. Cost of living is quite different etc but none-the-less the jobs created are "gone" from here. Boeing however is doing "well".

So if you're into "composites" - to take just one example - business might be booming (the new 787 is composites) but if you're stamping aluminum (old planes) business might suck.

My reason for posting -- is that maybe people need to look for what's going on - not going down - and make a switch or work towards a switch... which may mean relocating etc.