I work in IT:
new philosophy of upper management: since the worst is yet to come most economics say (politicians of course say the opposite, but we know they are all liars), they decided, after already costcutting most of the year on all kinda expenses (salaries frozen, less flights, cheaper hotels, no restaurants, no parties, even electricity savings!) they now started to fire some of the best people of the company (not the most expensive ones, but the easiest ones to fire), as saving those salaries means less painful decisions when it is too late
(I guess 'painful' means when it hurts their pockets!). Others company divisions are moved to low salary countries (know-how and accumulated experience does not count in the decision, just cold hard cash).Short-sighted decisions, stupid, stupid.
US States (which are some of our customers) cannot pay their invoices (all frozen), other customers refuse to pay their maintenance, even inventing complaints to justify not paying maintenance, new sales are still more or less stable but prospects are a lot more difficult before buying, competition is a lot harder and unforgiving than 2 years ago, all tricks allowed to snatch a deal.
I had the not so nice job to fire most of my people and go rehire cheaper ones in another country. 1,5 years ago we had on a now hiring announcement 20something resumes in 1 month. Now i got 180+ in 2 weeks! Managers, Level 3 engineers, etc, all applying for a level 1 engineer job! People making 60K before willing to work for 30K. Even 2 women working in IT before, were made redundant last year, one now working as hotel receptionist and other in a ... slaughterhouse! Crazy shizz.
I know others trying to get rid of their Mercs, Audi's and BMWs as they cannot afford them anymore. They are not even getting 1 phonecall per month unless they lower their prices way below the usual market price. The carmarket is dead over here, my BMW dealer said the sales damage is limited, but it is sooo hard to sell the car, clients just get very anal on details now. Even know of 2nd hand 2yr old white E60 M5 with low mileage sitting already for 8 months at a BMW dealership in Brussels, they just can't get rid of it, price is now lowered to 1/4th of new price (yes, around 25K euro!!), but still no-one buys as the taxes to drive a car over there are just incredibly high (add at least 10K when you buy it for roadtax, insurance, etc). And the color seems also not to help much. Other story I heard about Merc R350 being sold after bankruptcy. Asking price was 40K. Publicly sold. No takers. So they were stuck with car. A friend of mine called them and said "I'll give ya 19K for it". Guy on phone laughed him away, saying the price was ridiculously low... 2 months later he called him again, if he still wanted to buy for....19K...
He told them to go F themselves.
My M5 is paid, I got no outstanding loans or mortgages, make good money (touch wood) so I am pretty relaxed at night, but still keep my eyes very open on what is happening around me and globally, the last 'firing wave' came suddenly, I escaped by a few inches getting fired aswell, but the next wave I may not survive, I just dunno, I live from quarter to quarter, and keep driving my M5 of course
Another friend lost his credit line, bank where he is customer since ages, never had a single payment issue, earns good money, has quite some money stashed over there, and was now working on a big hotel construction project. His wife got diagnosed with a brain tumor (but in meantime she had successful treatment), and within a week the bank magically heard of this issue, and called him to say they cancelled his credit line just because of that!!! (she is actually insured for it, but bank did not care, just suddenly 'too risky' for them) He said he will have to declare bankruptcy if he cannot find another bank within a month. Damn banks, they ruin you even if you have not done anything wrong.
I think the US Dollar currency is the most dangerous weakness of the current world economy, with their trillions of debt it is unsustainable, it will collapse one day, and if it is dropped as international reserve currency, it is over and out for the US and we're in for a long world recession (at least I live in a euro country, my savings would not vaporize, but we all know without the US nothing else works).
But most of the current situation should be indeed blamed on GREED, avoid the Bush/Obama rethoric. I enjoy watching left wing blogs on the web or right wing TV like Fox News, they are both hilarious and ridiculous, too bad quite some actually believe all the BS what is written/said over there. I watched 2 good DVDs back from 2006 which scarily predicted what happened in 2008 in the US. 'In Debt We Trust' and 'Maxed Out' (just google for them adding 'rapidshare.com' in the search terms, they are easy to find). Quite a sobering thing to watch, esp since these were made in 2006 but look like they were made in 2009, so damn accurate!
And regarding the whole healthcare debate: I do not live in a 'socialist' country, I am not a Michael Moore fan either, but just to give you an idea: know a woman over here who needed urgent cancer surgery. All went well, she is ok again. She lives off 900 euro a month half-time salary as barmaid. Has a kid, divorced, alone. No extra health insurance but just the public one. The whole medical stuff over a 2 month period costed out of her own pocket... 235 euro! (total amount she never knew, but we expect it was over 5K)
An ex-colleague of mine his wife had exactly same cancer and treatment, but they live in the US. Luckily they work both, as they had to pay out of their OWN pocket (despite part being reimbursed by their health insurance).... $8,000! I guess the first woman over here would have been dead by now if she lived in the US... so is it really that fair to exclude the public option? Yes? Even if that woman happened to be your friend or some family member, would it still be fair to let her die as she cannot afford treatment? Indeed no ***** panel to be seen, the actual ***** panel is her bank! It is all about the GREEDY private sector (here we have that GREED word again
) wanting to protect their cash-cows, nothing more, nothing less.
Other example: my brother was with his wife on holiday in US, she fainted, was brought for checkup to US hospital. Turned out all fine. But security did not allow them to leave the hospital after 1 day, unless he paid the bill first... $5,000 ! Ambulance, bed, everything, just ridiculous (over here it would be...FREE!) He was shocked as not used to such policies, as in Europe they just let you go, not even real security in hospitals. Luckily his health insurance in Europe will repay him (but took him a lawsuit threat as initially his company refused due to amount, but luckily for my brother the contract did not exclude US territory from coverage
). Lesson learnt: as a European, don't get sick and don't break any bones while being in the US...
If that means I am a socialist now, well, I do not like socialism, but seems it works out better then the system in the land of the free. I already had to tell one US colleague who said I was living in a socialist country that, if really so, then the fact I drive an M5, must mean I am member of the party elite over here
Hell with it, socialist or capitalist, democrat or republican..."whether you are rich or poor, it's nice to have money"
Webmaster 
OK, would be bad if you had to pay him $400 000 to work for him 
....ridiculous. Very sad, and very scary.
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