Jan
13
A Cyclical Election Year Downturn?
Filed Under economy | 4 Comments
My family and I were taking a walk around the block today and ran into a neighbor walking her dog.
We were chit-chatting and the conversation turned to the economy. She mentioned something that has stuck with me.
The economy always seems to talk a dive around election time.
Around the 1980 election, the economy was in the tubes. I remember sitting in gas lines with my dad hoping we’d be able to get some gas, just like everyone else queued up. We didn’t have a house — luckily the military took care of that — but I doubt that we would have been able to get one even if we had wanted with the double-digit interest rates for mortgages during that time.
Fast forward to 1992. I was graduating from college and looking to get out into the work force. The economy wasn’t too hot, so I took a temp job and ended up getting a nice assignment at IU. I ended up going back to school at Valparaiso.
Jump ahead another 15 years and we have the news that the economy is dropping like a rock — right before election time.
With a wave of negative signs gathering force, economists, policy makers and investors are debating just how much the economy could be damaged in 2008. Huge and complex, the American economy has in recent years been aided by a global web of finance so elaborate that no one seems capable of fully comprehending it. That makes it all but impossible to predict how much the economy can be expected to fall before it stabilizes.
It will be interesting to see if there is another downturn about 12 to 15 years from now right before a presidential election.
Dec
21
Mortgage Crunch Hits NWI Builder
Filed Under economy, real estate | Leave a Comment
Sad news for a Northwest Indiana homebuilder.
The Post-Tribune reports that banks have filed mortgage foreclosure lawsuits against Harvest Homes.
The financially beleaguered Harvest Homes, a subdivision developer for Porter and Lake counties based at 954 Eastport Center in Valparaiso, is being taken to court for about $2 million it owes on homes it has built.
Two banks are foreclosing on the mortgages, Liberty Savings Bank, based in Florida, according to their lawyer Timothy Buckley, and the local Centier Bank.
Dec
13
Steel Workers vs. Environmentalists?
Filed Under economy, environment | Leave a Comment
Steel workers and environmentalists clash in war of words.
Frugal Hoosiers spotted a local story about a rhetorical clash between environmentalists and steel workers:
A few days after US Steel announced they will add 250 workers to their Indiana labor force, a bus load of steel workers decided they’d had just about enough of the Sierra Club and liberal Washington politicians coming to town to tell them how horrible they are.
