Here in Pittsburgh things are still relativley stable. We didn't really see a housing bubble so our banks are doing okay. PNC Bank actually just aquired National City. Westinghouse is still hiring about 1000/year and the nuclear business is doing well.

We may just be lagging behind about 10 months but so far so good.

Sabey corp is building a new data-center directly across the alfalfa field.

Our state is running a three billion dollar deficit.

Their facility will be leased by contractors, but for reference it will be nearly twice the footprint of our facility.

The other week, I stopped in to visit a friend that has an HVAC business. The phone did not ring the entire time I was there chatting (~45 minutes).

Another bud is a builder that mostly does 350K - 500K homes, one or two at a time. Has been steady busy for the 12 years I have known him. Well, he is at home now, no work in sight, and planning to redo his bed & bath after the holidays.

I sold a cord of wood yesterday to a friend who gave it to another friend as a Christmas present. The reciepient had a family medical blow up this year and has had no time to cut wood and was locked in to heating oil at a prebuy price around $4.50/gal. with a 500 gal. minimum purchase over the winter. I doubt he will buy the 501st gallon. Anyway I helped move the wood for free and still pocketed my $150 in cash.

My brother is waiting for a court date on SSDI. I think he may freeze to death next winter as his income is $203 Month (welfare) + food stamps. Energy assistance only pays his ele bill during the winter. He heats with wood. Temps are already around zero F this year. He needs about 10 cords to make it thru a winter. He is unable to harvest wood himself due to his poor health. There is NO work in his neck of the woods either. Everything is shutting down. New construction is dead.......

I learned a lot today:

1. A local food bank which serves the SE Asian community is out of rice. Too many families need it (primarily immigrants within the last 25 years) and too few donations.

2. A local company which makes the "cheap toilet paper" you find in gas stations etc is seeing business expand. Their margin is increasing as the price of waste paper goes down (less/no competition from China) as their volume goes up (people are buying the cheapest stuff).

3. Local trucking company with a lot of contracts with food producers: more spam, less breakfast cereal; more campbell's soup, bread and butter (Bread and butter is back on the table as people are looking for filler). Over all food shipping is down... "Never thought it would happen" he added. Who thought people would eat less... Like nothing he has ever seen in the business and he is not far from retirement. He hoped they would be able to keep all of their people and was glad that they have contracts with big food companies.

4. Publishing business is suffering.

5. Garden seed prices may go up 30-40%... at least from one supplier.

A lot of different industries were represented and without the added stress of Peak Oil the prognosis was that we are looking at 5 really bad years. A lot of people were saving money in case their jobs go away.

10 cords?! Jeezus... he either needs a smaller house, better insulation or a more efficient stove (or all of the above). That, or a home further south...

http://www.pegasusnews.com/news/2008/dec/06/irving-based-mission-foods-close-fort-worth-plant-/

Here's one. This area has been somewhat insulated but I'm sure this is just one of the first ones. Had no idea it was a Mexican owned intl. company. Ill be checking the labels and hope not to see the new batches with a Made in China label.

No kidding we only use wood and we probably only use 5 cords on a bad year... my grandfather, however, lives 500 miles south of here and probably burns close to 10 cords.


Last edited by wisconsin_cur on Mon Dec 08, 2008 2:14 pm; edited 1 time in total

The Furnace/Boiler Service/Repair/Replacement program, HEAP and Emergency HEAP really help many of our customers here in New York.

Timing is perfect since they've raised HEAP Grants substantially, raised income qualification levels substantially, plus heating oil & kerosene prices have dropped like a rock since their peak.

It started out as a summer cabin built in the early 60's. Then added onto in the 90's. Energy hog!

Add into that our economy has been pretty much in the dumper for the last 35 years or so has softened the blow too, if you want to put it that way.

Anheiser Busch ( Inbev ) is slashing 12,000 jobs in St. Louis

No link yet.

Make that 1,200 (actually closer 2000, counting contractors and unfilled billets). 12,000 would be well over half of A-B's entire employment. That comes later.

sorry, thanks for clarifying

Link

So much for healthcare being a safe bet.

As usual Houston is 180 degrees out of phase with the rest of the country. Some of the shine has worn of housing though. We might also begin to see some cut backs in the office side of the oil patch in the next couple of months. The drilling contractor biz will probably lay off a big percentage but most of those folks don't live in the city.

Perhaps a good model for how bad life will get for the nation would be Houston during the mid-80's. When oil dropped to $10/bbl the national economy began to rebound. Obviously just the opposite in Houston. Housing is a good example: it took at least 10 years for any improvement was seen in the housing market here. IMO those folks who think we'll see a housing rebound in a couple of years are just dreaming. Even w/o PO looming a number of years out, it's difficult for me to see any real improvement in the national scene for at least 6 to 8 years. Unfortunately, the way economic factors reach Main Street so slowly I suspect we’re still a couple of years from hitting the bottom…whatever that is.

Local plant that makes roller bearings announced 30 layoffs, which doesn't sound like much but it's about 30-40% of the total staff.

Burlinton VT survey of business conditions found office space vacancy rate jumped from a normal 6.5% to 10.8%. Also some layoffs in a computer mapping company in Lebanon New Hampshire.

Chapman Construction (where my wife works) laid off two twenty five year employees today (they are a national rocksaw company). Bing says they've laid off a bunch of other people earlier this year. the grocery where I work has slashed their hours and budgeting much, much higher SPPH rates. (My boss says its impossible).