April 1-3 Update

April 3
The dryers were all full and still had about 15-20 minutes to go when I got my 2 wash loads of laundry this afternoon. I didn’t realize that all 4 were bull when I put my laundry in. So, I decided it was a good time to try the clothesline idea. Last summer sometime, I picked up a good sized but easy to carry folding laundry basket, clothesline and 2 packages of clothes pins.
I hung the pants and knit tops and shirts on hangars and hung them in the bathroom. I always hang better pants, capris and shorts, not jeans, inside. Other things, except for denim things, to in a dryer. Denim gets hung on the bushes in the front of the house until dark—they’re usually dry much sooner than that anyway. And it’s not so classy to have clothes hanging all over the landscaping for more than one afternoon.

Anyway, I tied up the clothesline and hung out the undies and socks and some prs of knit shorts went on the patio chairs. And no one will see them, unless they peek over the block wall. J
That didn’t take long either. And saved me 25 to 50 cents.

Oh, yes, unemployment is up after March figures to 8.5% and what was that about unemployment going to 9% by the end of 2009?? (Someone made that prediction even as late as the end of February) If we keep going this way it will be like 12% by the end of Dec.

Off to do something positive,
shamba

April 1 2009

Some latest Arizona Econ Info:
-On local HBC channel 12 on 6:00 p.m. news (3-31-09) leading story was that the average home price in Phoenix (area or metro incorporated area?) in March 07 was 255,000; in March 09 (now) it’s 150,00; a 53% drop. (I didn’t do the math I just wrote down what they said on air)
Some other US news: from various sources online.
-Manufacturing in the U.S. contracted for a 14th straight month in March as factories kept on cutting production amid the economic downturn that this month becomes the longest since the Great Depression.
-The nation’s gross domestic product was $14.2 trillion in 2008. President Barack Obama and Treasury Secretary Timothy Either met with the chief executives of the nation’s 12 biggest banks on March 27 at the White House to enlist their support to thaw a 20-month freeze in bank lending.
-“Companies in the U.S. cut an estimated 742,000 workers in March, pointing to no relief in sight for the labor market amid the longest recession in seven decades, a private report based on payroll data showed today. The drop in the ADP Employer Services gauge was larger than economists forecast and the most since records began in 2001. February’s reading was revised to show cut of 706,000 workers, up from a previous estimate of 697,000.Companies are slashing staff as tight credit conditions and shrinking household wealth cause sales to shrink. The Labor Department may report in two days that employers cut payrolls in March for a 15th consecutive month, putting jobs losses in the current downturn at more than 5 million, according to a Bloomberg survey. "The weakness is distributed across all components of the economy," Joel Prakken, chairman of Macroeconomic Advisers LLC in St. Louis, said in a conference call. "We are going to see several more months of serious bleeding before we see lesser job losses."
-"The pace of decline is slowing down, that’s important," David Wyss, chief economist with Standard & Poor’s in New York, said in a Bloomberg Television interview. "It is too early to look for a turnaround, but maybe it is time to start saying that things are not getting as bad as quickly as they were earlier."
-The OECD predicted that world trade will shrink by 13.2pc in 2009. The forecast is worse than those from the World Trade Organisation and World Bank and indicates a faster and more widespread implosion of imports and exports than in any single year during the 1930s.
--The USDA said farmers intend to plant the nation's 21 biggest crops on 7.8 million fewer acres than last year, the biggest one-year drop since 1987, when the farm belt was mired in a debt crisis. The retreat is most dramatic in states like North Dakota, where farmers intend to plant 1.4 million fewer acres, and in Texas, where farmers could idle one million acres. Many growers still have time to change their plans for the growing season, which begins in mid-April across much of the farm belt. The USDA will survey farmers about actual plantings in June.

I’m waiting to see what M. says about my 2007 taxes before I decide what to do with the IRAs money.
Two more small stock transfers to do before I’m done with the estate stuff. Yeah!

Cheers,
shamba