bring on 2010

[pcaruthers]

good morning everyone.

what a year it has been, we've all seen our share of layoffs, lost jobs, and no work. I'm curious to see if anyone out there is actually recovering....Here in Florida, we are not. Most of our work is in the elderly housing arena, we've managed to keep the firm afloat with these projects even though they are few in far between. Our reputation in this area has been a huge advantage for us. But there is still no commercial jobs that require Bank $$. The road sides are littered with half completed housing developments, and construction jobs that have been cancelled. Construction companies are dropping like flies along with many architectural firms... Everything we've done with exception of a couple residential projects has gone through HUD, and now HUD is so backed up it takes months to get HUD approvals.

How is everyone doing? what does it look like on the horizon for you and your company? where are you located?

Paul Caruthers
Bessolo Design Group
St. Pete, FL

[AllenJessup]

Figuratively and literally the Lockbox is still just a bunch of T-bills sitting in a file cabinet and the money made from their sale WAS used for all the government expenses you listed plus more. I didn't explain fully. Those t-bills weren't purchased by the Chinese or anyone else. They were purchased with the money that was to be set aside for Social Security. The danger is that if a large holder like the Chinese were to call in the bills those purchased by the SS Administration would be devalued.
Mandatory insurance has been a big topic lately. If I invest the money that otherwise would have gone in to SS wisely I will not be a burden on my fellow tax payers. If I don't and need assistance the money that will be used to help me will have come out of my paycheck and the paycheck of every other tax paying citizen. It doesn't matter to the individuals bottom line whether you call it an SSI deduction or just plain old income tax
Gold goes up - gold goes down. Usually the amount of greenbacks you can get for an ounce of gold has the same buying power as when it was bought. Doesn't matter whether it's more of less in dollar amount. That makes gold a good hedge against inflation. But the only ones seeing a real profit in the gold market are the traders that take advantage of the slight lag while it's rising to pay a little less and then take advantage of the lag as it goes down to sell a little high.
Allen

[Anonymous]

But that IS the Lockbox problem. The government simply refuses to use
clean accounting (see the movie Dave) since legitimate accounting would
prevent the spending of the money on projects that get the incumbents
re-elected.

You state that if you invest the SS money wisely... BUT everybody thinks
they are investing wisely. Look how many got burnt by Enron, by Madoff,
etc. The capitalist view should be as it is in SSI, if you donate more
you receive more. When Income Tax pays for the guy who didn't save or
invested poorly, we are approaching Socialism because the guy who is
contributing is paying for the guy who isn't.

Gold goes up - gold goes down but it DOESN'T always have the same buying
power. At the moment it has high buying powerbecause of the high price.
Five years ago it had a much lower buying power because of it's
relatively low price. It is an extremely volatile commodity with little
to recommend it as an investment except for the fact that it has a
perceived value far in excess of its true value. More people lose money
investing in gold than practically any other investment vehicle.

AllenJessup wrote:
> Figuratively and literally the Lockbox is still just a bunch of T-bills
> sitting in a file cabinet and the money made from their sale *WAS* used
> for all the government expenses you listed plus more. I didn't explain
> fully. Those t-bills weren't purchased by the Chinese or anyone else.
> They were purchased with the money that was to be set aside for Social
> Security. The danger is that if a large holder like the Chinese were to
> call in the bills those purchased by the SS Administration would be
> devalued.
> Mandatory insurance has been a big topic lately. If I invest the money
> that otherwise would have gone in to SS wisely I will not be a burden on
> my fellow tax payers. If I don't and need assistance the money that will
> be used to help me will have come out of my paycheck and the paycheck of
> every other tax paying citizen. It doesn't matter to the individuals
> bottom line whether you call it an SSI deduction or just plain old
> income tax
> Gold goes up - gold goes down. Usually the amount of greenbacks you can
> get for an ounce of gold has the same buying power as when it was
> bought. Doesn't matter whether it's more of less in dollar amount. That
> makes gold a good hedge against inflation. But the only ones seeing a
> real profit in the gold market are the traders that take advantage of
> the slight lag while it's rising to pay a little less and then take
> advantage of the lag as it goes down to sell a little high.
> Allen

[AllenJessup]

Yes. They've spent the SS money and the T-bills that have replaced it are backed, both principal and interest, by taxpayer money.
"When Income Tax pays for the guy who didn't save or invested poorly" is happening today and every day. Only about 50% of the people are paying any income tax at all. A very large portion of taxes are used to assist people in the same group. While I'm not against helping people in need or even those who have simply made some wrong choices. There is a point where those of us lucky enough to pay taxes will become over stressed. All I was trying to say is that if the government left some people a little more money to invest for retirement then there might be a few less who would need help in the end.
Gold and other commodities do see periods where they are inflated or devalued. But these tend to correct quickly. The people who get burned are the ones who sold at the wrong times. I know that sometimes that can't be helped. People who sold off their stock at the low in the market took a real bath. Those who held on may be doing a little better now.
I hadn't meant to go on about this as long as I have. I'll wrap it up by saying that the government should be there to help and try to provide a measure of security to people in the country. But while I think is should be there I'm not going to count on the fact that it will be there.
Allen