at-the-water-cooler.com

May be early for this post, but the post “A de facto recession” was also early. Government numbers actually showed an anemic growth. These numbers based on GDP gross domestic product, include all sales of products in the US, which includes imports from China and gasoline.

The indication we have passed the worst is that home sales have increased. A natural effect of a dollar that has dropped against other currencies is to draw in investment from other currencies. But investors wait for the price to be at the lowest point. Well the waiting ended and sales of homes has gone up - its good to be a realtor again..

The price of fuel is still a problem, but if you recall the concern for the US economy after 9/11 and the sharp increase in fuel … what happened is the US is no worse off than other countries in dealing with high fuel costs. It is a level playing field.

So all in all, the job market, savings, hope for the future should all look fairly good across summer and into the 2008 election cycle.

Popularity: 26% [?]

I honestly don’t know how big the problem is with people getting out of jail and not having a place to go. Some jails let people go with $200.00 and these people may have been in jail for year don’t have a drivers license, or social security card so finding a job the first day is not likely.

Without a place to go they start to look scruffy by the second day, by the fourth day they need clean clothes and a bath. Now they are homeless and unless somebody invests in them they can not become productive members of our society.

The federal government is trying to address the problem with “The Second Chance Act of 2007″ I do not know what States are doing.

Popularity: 23% [?]