I hope no one is dumb emough to blame Obama for the downturn, it preceeded him. We're just concerned about how the federal gov't is addressing it.
Being in health care I've seen very little change in my practice. Occasionally I'll see a patient who holds off on an elective surgery because they're concerned they will lose their job if they take time off to recover. Now my portfolio, that's another story. Fortunately I've got more than a decade before I retire but I know a few docs who were too slow to insulate their portfolios from this type of thing as they were heading into retirement, now it's a few more years off.
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Yes... Seems like everyday there is more financial bad news, most recent being a bank loosing about £10bn (pounds), my neighbour works for that bank and I've been searching their house to see if I can find it.
As the others have mentioned, property does seem to be levelling off, I keep my eye on property and have noticed many more properties under offer which is a good sign for the next couple of months.
Reading all the doom and gloom in the papers I'm surprised it's not much worse (damn newspaper).
How about Canada?
In Canada, we are not allowed to write off mortgage interest payments (unlike the US) and our banks are extremely regulated.
Our property values haven't really fallen and with our banking regulations, our banks don't have these toxic assets that affected the US banks and indeed banks worldwide.
We were lucky in hindsight to have very a fiscally conservative government. We all complained (me included) about not growing quickly as the US in the boom times but these conservative policies are saving our bacon in the decline.
Still very bad here for jobs, but we don't have the collapse of the financial system. Credit is still available. Housing market is flat to slightly down..... We are lucky.
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I own a factoring company and we purchase accounts receivable from companies in order to help with cash flow. 08 saw a huge increase in inquiries but for the first time, we saw a huge increase in fraud(attempting to sell fake invoices). When economic conditions deteriorate, it is amazing what people will do.
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I hope no one is dumb emough to blame Obama for the downturn, it preceeded him. We're just concerned about how the federal gov't is addressing it.
Being in health care I've seen very little change in my practice. Occasionally I'll see a patient who holds off on an elective surgery because they're concerned they will lose their job if they take time off to recover. Now my portfolio, that's another story. Fortunately I've got more than a decade before I retire but I know a few docs who were too slow to insulate their portfolios from this type of thing as they were heading into retirement, now it's a few more years off.
Dentistry is the same as most other health care fields. My net income increased a little in 2008 compared to 2007 but that is mostly because I put more working days and hours anticipating the inevitable slow down in business this year. As TimK said I am seeing an increased trend in cancellations and no shows because patients can't afford their portions. Recently we have been getting a lot of messages of patients canceling because they lost their jobs but so far I am still busy and keeping my fingers crossed. Us working in Dentistry are lucky to have a strong and committed organization (The ADA) that fought hard to keep us out of socialized care. The political arm of the ADA is very active fighting underpayment by insurance carriers. The ADA is also resisting constant attempts by local state legislators (as here in Illinois) to expand service coverage and ease restrictions on licensing. By doing so the ADA is protecting its members from a down fall in service fees and preserving the quality of care. I don't take any HMO in my office and I know of only few dentists who do in this area, but I provide free care to needy patients at least two days a month and all is facilitated by the ADA. Two things are going to be critical for Dentistry this year. First scary thing is PPO providers going out of business as more people lose their jobs and stop paying for dental insurance leading to insurance companies going out of business or canceling dental coverage. The second scary part is if the economy gets really bad and people simply stop going to or paying their dentists. A study showed that people undergoing financial difficulties prioritize their expenses putting their cable and phone bills at the top of their must pay list and dental and medical bills at the bottom of their list. People feel that the dentist can wait and the worst thing the dentist can do to you is send your bill to collection where it will take months and years to settle. People forget that we also have families that we must feed and M5 leases we have to pay for. So please respect and pay your dentist...
On the physician side of the health care business, I am starting to see some changes. I am seeing more patients who have lost their jobs and can not afford deductibles or even treatment. The effects have not been nearly as bad or broad as most other businesses as of yet. However, I am worried about potential changes to Medicare, including health care rationing, etc... Changes in Medicare policy (usually for the worse) are generally followed by the commercial insurance counterparts. If this happens then I will surely feel more economic impact.
DB
Quote:
Originally Posted by TimK
Being in health care I've seen very little change in my practice. Occasionally I'll see a patient who holds off on an elective surgery because they're concerned they will lose their job if they take time off to recover. Now my portfolio, that's another story. Fortunately I've got more than a decade before I retire but I know a few docs who were too slow to insulate their portfolios from this type of thing as they were heading into retirement, now it's a few more years off.
Working in the hospital and speaking with a few surgeons, I noticed a trend of December of 2008 not being nearly as busy as 2007. I was told that a few patients did not want to pay their deductibles or wanted to wait until the new year to have surgeries. I think the media, since September, has contributed to a few people shying away from surgeries they would normally have. Also the loss of jobs and health insurance has been an issue I have seen recently as well from the accounts of mentors.
I still have yet to be paid for my work in January and there are no signs of my pay check coming anytime soon, despite the businesses I did work for paying their bills to my company. I also was given this week off which would have been my busiest this month, I have a feeling I won't get my percentage pay from this week either. I understand the issue of account receivables but I'm not getting paid because other businesses that I did free work for have not paid our company yet but my boss was able to use company money to get his new home a $21,000 paint job. It's very irritating but I also understand many others are dealing with situations such as this and worse
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A study showed that people undergoing financial difficulties prioritize their expenses putting their cable and phone bills at the top of their must pay list and dental and medical bills at the bottom of their list. People feel that the dentist can wait and the worst thing the dentist can do to you is send your bill to collection where it will take months and years to settle.
Good luck guys! Does the UK suffer from the double bubble like the US? Housing value and Credit crunch?
T Bone I am afraid so - we have have suffered considerable cross-contamination of the two sectors, which has led to the sector I work in (Housing & Commercial Development/Investment) taking a catastrophic nose dive.
Banks currently won't lend to any great degree, they are still demanding too much margin over LIBOR as well as being unrealistic over loan to value ratios, which in itself is being adversely affected by valuers who won't value correctly (probably on the instruction of the banks!)
Property took us into this recession and it will bring us out.
Banks aren't giving a decent return on invested money, therefore investors with reasonable funds will look to other places for a better return, this invariably will lead to investors looking to property, as currently there are good deals to be had, but you need cash, or a certainly a good percentage of cash in relation to the debt against the property.
Then once the banks can secure equitable book loans as above, they will become more confident about lending more, as they are secure in the knowledge their previous lending is sustainable.
I'll get off my soap box now
NB - I'm based in the North West, but periodically visit Leeds and York
The inevitable problem in the us is the degree of involvement of that the government will have to take, to solve the economic problems that resulted from the ecomonic liberties taken by people who have no "monetary" common sense! If you can't afford it..... don't sign for it! I'm sorry to see people loose their homes, but in reality, those that did loose their home should'nt have had a home in the first place. And you can't say that its the lenders fault either since nobody put a gun to their heads to sign it.... I've seen people act like a "victim" and so "innocent" when things go wrong, but if things were different, and the choices they made were to make them a profit, these are also the first people to "claim" they knew it all along and how brilliant they were!!!! Once the govt. takes hold of anything, its no longer a "viable" investment. Growth would stall.. (I guess its better than negative growth) Unfortunately no growth is not a viable investment for the future. And the current market is a reflection of that fear. Once the govt. gets involved, it'll be years before we see dividends that would amount to anything. In all, I think a "correction" was in order to teach everyone a lesson most people have forgotten.... live within your means. Just my .02
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