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

[Charles_Shade]

Seen by the few?
> . Banking, oil, and military suppliers (direct and indirect) saw
> some of the gains, but few others did. Housing saw some gains for a
> short period, but only at the expense of the eventual bubble bursting.
DOW 30:
3M - Manufacturing
Alcoa - Manufacturing
AMEX - Credit and Banking
AT&T - Communications
BofA - Banking
Boeing - Manufacturing
Caterpillar - Construction
Chevron - Oil
Cisco - Computer
Du Pont - Chemical
Exxon - Oil
GE - Consumarables / Manufacturing
HP - Computer
Intel - Computer
IBM - Computer
J&J - Consumarables
JP Morgan - Banking
Kraft - Food
McDonalds - Food
Merck - Medical
Microsoft - Computer
Pfizer - Drug
Coke - Food
Home Depot - Retail
P&G - Consumarables
Travelers - Insurance
United Tech - Manufacturing
Verizon - Communications
Wal-Mart - Retail
Disney Corp - Media

Yes I know some of this are in and out over the last couple of years but it seems to have been a rather broad based increase in expectations and profits earned across a vast segment of the economy during the years from 03-08. Bubble? Sure. So was the dot-com, so was the savings and loan, so was the... there is always a next.
S&P 500 over the years 03-08 (cherry picked a bit; my downturn started June 08) had 5 year return of 45%. Generally considered a better gauge of economic activity. I would not mind a 9% yearly increase.
Regards, Charles Shade

[Charles_Shade]

Military resources were wasted becuse the war was not and is not being fought to win. As for international goodwill I would ask you to look at the pro-western elections in France and Germany as far as the "politicking" goes. The world still looks to America for guidance and reassurance that there is a safety net for times of disaster and need.
Current administrative waffling on courses of action and direction of the United States will in the longer term cause more difficulty and troubles when my children are having to deal with this. Do not believe for a moment that the religious fervor that has brought us globally to where we are is going to subside anytime soon. America is the shining beacon on the hill. Why did you choose here? Work? Apparently that was an ill thought move on your part. One of the responders here is basking in the glow of Canadien global architecture.
I am heartened to read that you see past the previous Bush years to what has been placed in law and deed by many an indvidual and other congressional sessions.
And how long should Saddam Hussien been allowed to spit on your face? What was it 8 years and 18 resolutions to cease and open your borders to, now wait for it, a world body that was working with the United States? Will you? NO. Will you? NO. Will you? NO. Al Queda or not it was time to deal with him. Would you like to know a wasted resource? That Falluja was not leveled when the Amreican contractors were hung from the bridge. Resolve. The Iraq "war" would have ended then had we shown the resolve to kill the enemy who has the moral belief to desecrate a human in that manner.
Regards, Charles Shade

[Anonymous]

Charles_Shade wrote:

> America is the shining beacon on the hill.

Sadly too many are ashamed of this great country that has for decades
rose to the defense of those in need. The current 'apology tour' makes
me want to puke.

> And how long should Saddam Hussien been allowed to spit on your face?

The lucky ones got that, some got gassed or put into the tree shredder.

Terry

[Anonymous]

We are not of the same opinions. Nothing will change that.

I am here because when I left Canada, the seperatists were in control in
Quebec and the economy there was in the same shape as it is here now,
except I was a new college graduate then and had no job whatsoever, so
it was a lot easier then to pick up and plant my roots elsewhere.

As far as the pro-western elections in Europe, look at when they
happened. They didn't go that way because of Bush, that's for sure.

Let's look at what was happening during those 8 years and 18 resolutions
to cease weapons of mass destruction and open to inspectors. Hussein
allowed the inspectors in and they collected and destroyed his WMD's.
When we declared war because he wasn't allowing the inspectors in, the
inspectors who were already there but we were pretending weren't there
had to leave because of the imminent invasion. NO WMD's were found after
they left that were not already slated by the inspectors for destruction.

BTW, when I finally could vote in U.S. elections in 2008, I voted on
every item EXCEPT the President. I didn't trust Obama, and McCain's age
combined with his running mate scared the shit out of me.

Charles_Shade wrote:
> Military resources were wasted becuse the war was not and is not being
> fought to win. As for international goodwill I would ask you to look at
> the pro-western elections in France and Germany as far as the
> "politicking" goes. The world still looks to America for guidance and
> reassurance that there is a safety net for times of disaster and need.
> Current administrative waffling on courses of action and direction of
> the United States will in the longer term cause more difficulty and
> troubles when my children are having to deal with this. Do not believe
> for a moment that the religious fervor that has brought us globally to
> where we are is going to subside anytime soon. America is the shining
> beacon on the hill. Why did you choose here? Work? Apparently that was
> an ill thought move on your part. One of the responders here is basking
> in the glow of Canadien global architecture.
> I am heartened to read that you see past the previous Bush years to what
> has been placed in law and deed by many an indvidual and other
> congressional sessions.
> And how long should Saddam Hussien been allowed to spit on your face?
> What was it 8 years and 18 resolutions to cease and open your borders
> to, now wait for it, a world body that was working /with/ the United
> States? Will you? NO. Will you? NO. Will you? NO. Al Queda or not it was
> time to deal with him. Would you like to know a wasted resource? That
> Falluja was not leveled when the Amreican contractors were hung from the
> bridge. Resolve. The Iraq "war" would have ended then had we shown the
> resolve to kill the enemy who has the moral belief to desecrate a human
> in that manner.
> Regards, Charles Shade

[Charles_Shade]

As I said I'm heartened to read that you see further than the recent past. Kudo's.
WMD's were the lower on the list. Not the sole reason for the invasion, albeit they got the most attention.

From Resolution 1441:
Deploring the absence, since December 1998, in Iraq of international

monitoring, inspection, and verification, as required by relevant resolutions, of

weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missiles, in spite of the Council's repeated

demands that Iraq provide immediate, unconditional, and unrestricted access to the

United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC),

established in resolution 1284 (1999) as the successor organization to UNSCOM,

and the IAEA, and regretting the consequent prolonging of the crisis in the region

and the suffering of the Iraqi people,

And you are right we will not agree. I'll quit now, I've been resisting this rant for three days now and could not take it anymore.
Regards, Charles Shade

[Anonymous]

Most of those companies fit the categories I mentioned, although I
probably should have included medical. Not all of the companies that you
show have done that well over the period we are considering.

Disney is/was losing money big time, as is/was Boeing

The computer industry is NOT doing as well as it was prior to Bush, but
a few companies are doing well partially because of the collapse of
their competition. However that collapse happened during Clinton. Nobody
has a 100% record, nor does anybody have a 0% record.

GE consumarables(sic)? They make a lot of money from the military. Look
at who makes the jet engines etc. Similarly United Technologies. J&J are
medical, not consumarables(sic). 3M and Du Pont make a lot of money from
their military supply sides. Alcoa should not be considered a
manufacturer but a refiner of aluminum, which is used by the military.

Yes, some companies did well, but the vast majority did not. For every
Wal-Mart and Home Depot there are numerous local operations that closed
their doors.


Charles_Shade wrote:
> Seen by the few?
> > . Banking, oil, and military suppliers (direct and indirect) saw
> > some of the gains, but few others did. Housing saw some gains for a
> > short period, but only at the expense of the eventual bubble bursting.
> DOW 30:
> 3M - Manufacturing
> Alcoa - Manufacturing
> AMEX - Credit and Banking
> AT&T - Communications
> BofA - Banking
> Boeing - Manufacturing
> Caterpillar - Construction
> Chevron - Oil
> Cisco - Computer
> Du Pont - Chemical
> Exxon - Oil
> GE - Consumarables / Manufacturing
> HP - Computer
> Intel - Computer
> IBM - Computer
> J&J - Consumarables
> JP Morgan - Banking
> Kraft - Food
> McDonalds - Food
> Merck - Medical
> Microsoft - Computer
> Pfizer - Drug
> Coke - Food
> Home Depot - Retail
> P&G - Consumarables
> Travelers - Insurance
> United Tech - Manufacturing
> Verizon - Communications
> Wal-Mart - Retail
> Disney Corp - Media
>
> Yes I know some of this are in and out over the last couple of years but
> it seems to have been a rather broad based increase in expectations and
> profits earned across a vast segment of the economy during the years
> from 03-08. Bubble? Sure. So was the dot-com, so was the savings and
> loan, so was the... there is always a next.
> S&P 500 over the years 03-08 (cherry picked a bit; my downturn started
> June 08) had 5 year return of 45%. Generally considered a better gauge
> of economic activity. I would not mind a 9% yearly increase.
> Regards, Charles Shade
>
>

[ACADuser]

Most of these projects should have been completed by now but were not conceptualized in time given the fact that many past leaders did not plan for the future. Before they realized what was happening we were already far into the housing boom. The majority of homes being built were in rural areas due to the cheap price of land. Not until thousands of people started complaining that it takes them 3 hours to get to work when it should only take 30-45 minutes did the leaders see the problems caused by this growth and their ignorance to what was taking place. As time passes and funding permits we keep moving forward by completing the construction of these projects piecemeal at a time.

After doing a google search for projects the stimulus money was spent on, I found the following;

http://coburn.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Files.View&FileStore_id=a28a4590-10ac-4dc1-bd97-df57b39ed872

After skimming through that report I gathered that part of our share must have been spent on the puppet theater. 😄

[Anonymous]

>>I can't argue that your industry, in your locale, was or was not doing
>>well. Nationwide statistics for the economy across the board show that
>>very few industries showed improvement over what they saw in previous
>>years. .<<

Actually, our industry deals directly with commercial, industrial,
municipal, and residential construction. And none of those had been hit hard
neither in our state nor our region until the last two years or so. The year
prior to that there was some pretty pronounced slowdowns in a couple of
those fields, but that was it.

>> Housing saw some gains for a short period, but only at the expense of the
>> eventual bubble bursting. <<

Housing went nuts here over the last 10 years. We never had a bubble
bursting here either. That's probably due to being in the middle of the
country versus the coasts, but housing never crashed here and in fact home
values have either remained steady over the last 3 years (after steady
increases the years prior) or increased slightly.

[Charles_Shade]

It was a spa here in Virginia (although that one has been proven wrong). I did see an interview with the spokesman for the troupe that received the money and he justified by saying that everyone needs a laugh after a stressful day of hearing about where the stimulus money went.
Okay that was a little ad-lib but the guy did defend the right to laugh.
Everything I heard was that the money was to go to shovel ready and projects to put Americans back to work. I've not seen the first piece of communication cable, or water pipe, or roadway, or power generation facility, or "green" Manhattan project, or oil independance, or electric grid, or mass transit, or rail (light, heavy, or fast; take your pick), or other project that was put before the people in passing the bill.
If its happening let me know 'cause I can strap on a toolbelt (maybe a couple nothes bigger nowadays).
Regards, Charles Shade

[Anonymous]

Don't place too much confidence in the government reports on where the
stimulus money was spent. We supposedly had millions spent in Iowa in
districts that don't even exist!


"ACADuser" wrote in message news:6314412@discussion.autodesk.com...
Most of these projects should have been completed by now but were not
conceptualized in time given the fact that many past leaders did not plan
for the future. Before they realized what was happening we were already far
into the housing boom. The majority of homes being built were in rural
areas due to the cheap price of land. Not until thousands of people started
complaining that it takes them 3 hours to get to work when it should only
take 30-45 minutes did the leaders see the problems caused by this growth
and their ignorance to what was taking place. As time passes and funding
permits we keep moving forward by completing the construction of these
projects piecemeal at a time.

After doing a google search for projects the stimulus money was spent on, I
found the following;

http://coburn.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Files.View&FileStore_id=a28a4590-10ac-4dc1-bd97-df57b39ed872

After skimming through that report I gathered that part of our share must
have been spent on the puppet theater. 😄

[Anonymous]

Hmm... Isn't that the new place of residence for Chris Dodd? 🙂
--
Dennis Jeffrey, Autodesk Inventor Certified Expert
Autodesk Manufacturing Implementation Certified Expert.
Instructor/Author/Sr. App Engr. Tel. (260) 399-6615
http://teknigroup.com

[Anonymous]

Supposedly, but he might have sold the place after his failed presidential
bid at the Iowa Caucuses. Connecticut can have him back anyway. 🙂


"Dennis Jeffrey" wrote in message
news:6314683@discussion.autodesk.com...
Hmm... Isn't that the new place of residence for Chris Dodd? 🙂
--
Dennis Jeffrey, Autodesk Inventor Certified Expert
Autodesk Manufacturing Implementation Certified Expert.
Instructor/Author/Sr. App Engr. Tel. (260) 399-6615
http://teknigroup.com

[Charles_Shade]

Iowa is going to be his retirement home 😉
Regards, Charles Shade

[Anonymous]

Oh great. 😞
face=Arial> 

I have lived here most of my life and I still fail
to see why anyone wants to retire here.  High taxes, cold winters, and hot
humid summers.

style="BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">

"Charles_Shade" wrote in message
href="news:6314781@discussion.autodesk.com">news:6314781@discussion.autodesk.com...

Iowa
is going to be his retirement home 😉
Regards, Charles
Shade

[Anonymous]

style="BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"
dir=ltr>

"Doug Bowers" <doug then at dougbowersconsulting thedotcom> wrote
in message
href="news:6314905@discussion.autodesk.com">news:6314905@discussion.autodesk.com...

Oh great. 😞
face=Arial> 

I have lived here most of my life and I still
fail to see why anyone wants to retire here.  High taxes, cold winters,
and hot humid summers.

What part of Iowa are you from? I'm in Sioux City. As for living here, I
can't imagine living anywhere else (except across the Big Sioux in
SoDak).

--
A common mistake people make when trying to design something
completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools.
Douglas Adams

[Anonymous]

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

Sioux City, IA; I work just across the border in South Dakota, 2 miles from where I live. I am a Senior Designer at a local manufacturer with 5 plants in Iowa, Nebraska, and South Dakota. I've been here 15 years. My company made money this last fiscal year and we are on track to be profitable in the coming year also. That is not to say that we are cruising along; we have had some tough times in the last couple years and I work in an engineering dept. that is half the size right now that it was 3 years ago. Overall corporate wide, we have around 25% fewer employees than we did a few years ago. We have had 2 rounds of layoffs in my department; the last one being last June. The first of our layoffs was seniority based with the newest hires being shown the door. The folks who caught a bullet on the most recent one were folks who needed to be let go anyway - they have not really been missed. In the last few months we have added 3 new drafters - one for quoting design and 2 for tooling drafting and cnc programming. Two of these new hires were from the plant level and the 3rd guy was a draftsman who was laid off in the first round of layoffs 2 years ago.

The business we are in is very competitive and it is a challenge to keep up to speed in a rapidly changing landscape. Our weakness always has been and continues to be getting potential work quoted and pricing out the door rapidly. We adjust and this is a continuous effort. We plan on sticking around and I expect more work coming our way in the coming year. Cautious optimism.

--
A common mistake people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools. Douglas Adams

[ACADuser]

And here I thought we were the government. I guess we're just not far enough up the chain. Not even a bread crumb for us - sheesh. From what I have heard, the state took money from the dot prior to the stimulus funds being handed out and used it to cover deficits in other programs. The stimulus funding was then used to pay for those projects that had been previously budgeted by the dot. I can't say for certain if this was the case but from all appearances it sure seems that way. Upon further research I have discovered that our portion of the money is supposedly going to pay for widening of the interstate as it passes through our district boundary.

I wouldn't call it growth of the government, but rather a band-aid. Wait till we see more taxes are coming out of our paychecks. That will definitely help with it's growth.

[Anonymous]

After a few record years we did go through a downturn. But all that meant
was less OT and smaller bonus checks. We deal in structural steel, and we
did have several customers that went under, but they were all one's that had
issue's with our billing department and other places. I've seen 2009 as more
of a cleansing and a survival of the fittest then anything.

Dale

wrote in message
news:6312270@discussion.autodesk.com...
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

[Anonymous]

its' the change you voted for. 🙂

"ACADuser" wrote in message news:6315002@discussion.autodesk.com...
> And here I thought we were the government. I guess we're just not far
> enough up the chain. Not even a bread crumb for us - sheesh. From what I
> have heard, the state took money from the dot prior to the stimulus funds
> being handed out and used it to cover deficits in other programs. The
> stimulus funding was then used to pay for those projects that had been
> previously budgeted by the dot. I can't say for certain if this was the
> case but from all appearances it sure seems that way. Upon further
> research I have discovered that our portion of the money is supposedly
> going to pay for widening of the interstate as it passes through our
> district boundary.
>
> I wouldn't call it growth of the government, but rather a band-aid. Wait
> till we see more taxes are coming out of our paychecks. That will
> definitely help with it's growth.

--
_______________
This unit is not labeled for retail sale

[Anonymous]

Those of you enjoying this thread should come on over to Take 5 (formerly
part of the Autodesk discussion groups)
A lot of familiar faces partake in non-work related banter

t5.dynip.com from you're newsreader

Enjoy.



"Dale" wrote in message
news:6315018@discussion.autodesk.com...
> After a few record years we did go through a downturn. But all that meant
> was less OT and smaller bonus checks. We deal in structural steel, and we
> did have several customers that went under, but they were all one's that
> had issue's with our billing department and other places. I've seen 2009
> as more of a cleansing and a survival of the fittest then anything.
>
> Dale
>
> wrote in message
> news:6312270@discussion.autodesk.com...
> 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

--
_______________
This unit is not labeled for retail sale