<p>“Yes, Jim Chanos, a flashy short-seller, has been preaching of the China bubble for a while now- he has been wrong so far. And I hope he is wrong for all of our sakes!”</p>
<p>I don’t know about that - fxi is down pretty good so far this year.</p>
<p>“According to our governor, things are getting better and there will be a SURPLUS this year …”</p>
<p>The CT governor announced a $200M surplus for the year. Good, right? I guess so, but we’ll need another 125 years of similar surpluses to cover the unfunded portion of the teachers retirement fund.</p>
<p>It’s just really hard to take one data point and use it as proof of direction. Was it last month it was announced that the economy had added 120K jobs, and the unemployment rate fell from 9.0% to 8.6%? Apply bit of math and hey, there are only three million unemployed in this country! (This is what happens when one takes government figures too seriously.)</p>
<p>Using strictly anecdotal information, I’d say CT is holding even. Large manufacturing and financial companies are announcing more layoffs in 2012, as are local governments. But health and defense and post-HS educational entities seem to be doing well. Housing is moribund … I’m not sure that has anything to do with the economy. The roads and malls are busier. Job listings are meager, and no one around here is predicting a quick recovery. But the really bad news has stopped.</p>
<p>National Association of Realtoirs (NAR) announce a correction in their home sales report 2007-2010. Over reported sales by 3million, ~13%.</p>
<p>This House won’t stay on the market long, It’s priced to move. I know a great mortgage broker, who’ll do a great job on you. :)</p>
<p>Interesting:</p>
<p>[Pet</a> adoptions hit record in 2011 | Seattle Times Newspaper](<a href=“http://today.seattletimes.com/2012/01/pet-adoptions-hit-record-in-2011-2/]Pet”>http://today.seattletimes.com/2012/01/pet-adoptions-hit-record-in-2011-2/)</p>
<p>People usually don’t adopt a pet if they don’t feel secure about their future. Or maybe they finally figured out that adopting an animal is cheaper and more rewarding in the long run than getting a puppy mill designer pet!</p>
<p>"Today I picked up a call- a classmate of H’s (elite college) has been calling at all hours for the last few days. H has not seen this fellow since senior year (over 30 years ago!)- he was calling to ask for money.</p>
<p>Last night H went out with old HS friend (we live thousands of miles from his hometown, so this was a real blast from the past). This guy was telling him that he has lent out $100,000 to HS class mates in the last five years. He has stopped, as he is not getting any of it back."</p>
<p>That’s creepy, calling old high school classmates for money. I wouldn’t do that in any situation.</p>
<p>Wow! Must be different kinds of classmates. None of mine or hubby’s have ever called to ask for money, nor would we ever dream of doing so, especially after 30+ years of silence! I’m surprised that the old HS friend “lent” out $100K to HS classmates over the past 5 years–nice guy but that’s quite a lot of $$$ to be handing out. One of the problems with such loans is that you generally lose both the cash & the “friend,” who will either ask for increasing sums and/or disappear if any request for repayment is made.</p>