It is now widely accepted as fact that the nation's economy is winding down slowly. Even at the Federal Reserve with Chairman Bernanke who is looking into ways that he can tweak the economy to get it started again. Despite the downturn however new unemployment claims fell in the first week of January for the third time in a row. This means that companies have not yet begun draining off jobs "en masse" and laying off people, Not just yet anyway. Housing starts however are not the same story. They are down overall by 25% from this time last year which is the worst downturn from one year to another in almost a quarter century.
The sub prime mortgage disaster is taking down some financial giants in its wake these days. Merrill Lynch suffered losses of 10 billion dollars in the last three months of last year which represents the worst hit that the company has ever taken in any quarter in its long history.
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