Desperate TIMES! Buy one Dodge Ram the other FREE!

University Dodge in Miami (888) 746-2445. ( Someone call to see if this is true) has taken a page out of the Payless Shoes playbook and is offering Buy One Get One on all new Dodge Rams in stock. The dealership in Miami is offering the major incentive in an effort to clear out the existing stock on slow moving pickup trucks.
This isn't the first time a car dealership has offered a BOGO deal on cars. An KIA dealership is almost always running a deal for a free sedan with the purchase of a minivan, but it is the first time I have seen such a deal on a Dodge Ram or for that matter any car manufactured by a Big Three American carmaker. Who knows, maybe a BOGO Bailout is just what they need to bring in some quick cash before they close!


Comments: You will most likely see dealerships do this on a daily basis. Only problem, used car dealerships will have to LOWER their prices, to reduce inventory. Buyers will come to grips that these dealers will be going bankrupt. Will they bite? This may create a glut of cars in the beginning. Once these dealers go into bankruptcy you'll find dealers stuck with cars coming out of their ying yang, just to compete!

MANY US STATES on the VERGE OF COLLAPSE

Illinois
With an ever-widening budget gap of $2 billion, Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich is seeking sweeping authority to cut state programs, including education.
"Today we have more difficult decisions to make," Blagojevich said Tuesday in releasing his latest budget proposal a day before lawmakers return to Springfield.
The push for more cutting power amid a rapidly growing budget shortfall comes after a summer of infighting over $1.4 billion in cuts that saw drug treatment programs and state facilities shuttered.
Meanwhile, the state is buried under a massive backlog of more than $4 billion in unpaid bills to health care and other state service providers.

NEW YORK- An effort by Gov. David A. Paterson to close a $1.5 billion hole in the state budget abruptly fell apart on Tuesday after the governor failed to persuade the Legislature to embrace his plan.

As the governor met in the Capitol with legislative leaders on Tuesday, protesters rallied against his proposed budget cuts.

The collapse means that no action will be taken this year to grapple with this year’s budget deficit, which continues to expand as tax revenues from Wall Street evaporate. It also means the state could find itself unable to pay some of its bills in the final months of the fiscal year, the governor warned.

General Electric now in Collapse?

General Electric: Genuine Risk of Collapse?
November 17, 2008 | about stocks: GE

General Electric (GE), the legendary American institution, founded in 1878 by Thomas Edison, is in deep trouble. Its PR machine has been in constant spin mode as the company sinks deeper into despair. It is one of the few companies in the U.S. that still retains a AAA rating. Considering Moody’s and S&P’s track record, rating companies and financial instruments, that AAA rating is not worth the paper it is written on. One look at GE’s balance sheet will convince you they do not deserve a AAA rating. AAA companies do not need to take the desperate actions that GE has taken in the last few months.
The virtual crash in its stock price indicates that there is something seriously wrong with GE. The stock reached $53 at its peak in 2000. It closed below $17 this past week, the lowest level since the mid-1990s. CEO Jeffrey Immelt, who took over from icon Jack Welch in 2001, has made his mark by managing the company to a 68% decline in its stock price. You will not see anyone on CNBC take a hard look at GE’s financial statements or ask the CEO tough questions, because Mr. Immelt signs their paychecks. While shareholders have taken a bath, Mr. Immelt, a Harvard MBA, raked in $72.2 million of compensation between 2002 and 2007. A company that is known for its pay for performance mantra evidently does not hold its CEO to the same standards.
The issuing of $12 billion in common stock at $22.25 per share is an act of extreme desperation and brings into question whether GE has a lucid strategy. How can investors have confidence in a company that bought back 97 million shares for $3.1 billion at an average price of $31.69 in the first nine months of 2008, and then issued $12 billion worth of stock at $22.25 in October? Not only did they buyback $3.1 billion of stock in 2008, but they also bought back $27 billion of stock in the prior three years at an average price of $36.46. This is a twist on the old saying, buy high and sell low. If Mr. Immelt was not so focused on trying to beat short term earnings goals by wasting $30 billion of cash on share buybacks, he wouldn’t have had to beg Warren Buffett for $3 billion last month at very poor terms from GE’s perspective. A CEO is responsible for preparing their company for a worst case scenario and should never risk the company in an attempt to meet short term goals. Mr. Buffett may have made one of the few mistakes of his glorious investing career. He has lost $762 million on his investment in 1 ½ months, a return of -25%.

Comment: We now have 3 of the largest auto companies collapsing, banks collapsing, companies bankrupt, retail shopping way down, mass unemployment.. now GE?
When will the Government admit we are in a DEPRESSION?

Bailout for GM is COLLAPSING!

WASHINGTON (AP) - Prospects dimmed Monday for enactment of a $25 billion bailout for the faltering auto industry before year's end, as congressional Democrats and the Bush administration seemed headed for a stalemate. Help for Detroit's Big Three, which have been battered by the economic meltdown that has choked their sales and frozen their credit, is falling victim to a partisan fight over where the money should come from.

Senate Democrats said they would press ahead with their plan to carve out a portion of the $700 billion Wall Street bailout to pay for the loans, but aides in both parties and lobbyists tracking the plan acknowledged they did not currently have the votes to do so. The White House and congressional Republicans insist that the automaker bailout money instead come from redirecting a separate $25 billion loan program approved by Congress to help the industry develop more fuel-efficient vehicles. READ ENTIRE ARTICLE HERE

CHINA closes 67,000 FACTORIES-GM cost for bailout? 200 BILLION!

Courtesy of the NY TIMES:

China Stats:
GDP: 9.74%
Inflation: 6.43%
Unemployment: 4%*
Markets: -64.92%
Gallon of gas: $3.48
Interest Rates: 6.66%
The slowdown in exports contributed to the closing of at least 67,000 factories across China in the first half of the year, according to government statistics. Labor disputes and protests over lost back wages have surged, igniting fear in local officials. I sat in disbelief reading today’s Shenzhen local paper stating that Some 9,000 of the 45,000 factories in the cities of Guangzhou, Dongguan and Shenzhen are expected to close down in the next three months according to the Dongguan City Association of Enterprises with Foreign Investment estimates. Those closures would see up to 2.7 million jobs cut as overseas demand for consumer goods and clothes fades, that’s more than 50,000+ a day if you believe official figures, which I do not, and I believe number is actually higher.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a0Ee7HIsw7Ao&refer=home

Nov. 15 (Bloomberg) -- General Motors Corp., burning through cash as sales slump, would cost the government as much as $200 billion should the biggest U.S. automaker be forced to liquidate, a forecasting firm estimated.

A GM collapse would mean ``more aid to specific states like Michigan, Ohio, and Indiana, and more money into unemployment and extended benefits,'' Nariman Behravesh, chief economist at IHS Global Insight Inc. in Lexington, Massachusetts, said yesterday in an interview.

Behravesh's projection of $100 billion to $200 billion in costs dwarfs the $25 billion industry bailout plan that will be debated in Congress next week to prop up Detroit-based GM, Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler LLC. The drain on taxpayers from a rescue or a GM failure is a central issue for U.S. lawmakers. General Motors also pleaded Monday for a billion-euro credit guarantee from the German government to help its Opel subsidiary.


BUSH: "US could have had a depression *greater* than the Great Depression" Admitted this to the press, on live TV, in his own words, after the G-20 economic summit today. Shocked The statement has only been briefly mentioned in the news, why?

DHL CARGO has serious problems

http://money.cnn.com/2008/11/09/news...e.ap/index.htm

DHL could see big layoffs: report
November 9, 2008: 9:13 AM ET

BERLIN (AP) -- Deutsche Post AG plans to announce a cost-saving program that could result in thousands of layoffs at its DHL cargo shipper in the United States, a German weekly reported Sunday.

Deutsche Post spokeswoman Barbara Scheil refused to comment on the report in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung, ahead of a news conference planned for Monday.

The paper reported that as many as 40,000 jobs could be threatened, roughly half of them at the DHL's U.S. Express business. DHL employs thousands at an air cargo facility in Wilmington, Ohio, whose jobs could be threatened.

Deutsche Post slashed its earnings forecasts for both 2008 and 2009 late last month, saying it expects pretax profit to fall 8 percent in the third quarter "as the global economic environment deteriorated markedly."

Tough competition from UPS (UPS, Fortune 500) and FedEx (FDX, Fortune 500) also has taken some of DHL's share of the valuable U.S. market. Reports suggest that both FedEx and UPS have taken major customers from DHL in recent weeks, including online merchants, major drug store chains and franchise businesses.

Comments: Every sector is being affected by these massive layoffs. I can't see a depression being avoided. FEDEX USPS and UPS are also laying off, this means they anticipate buyers will be not buying anything for Christmas ..looks like it could be catastrophic!

GM/FORD are just about CLOSED DOWN-ALERT!

FROM CNN: GM, world's largest carmaker, reports $4.2 billion loss and warns it is running out of money. Ford: Massive loss, job cuts
Detroit under siege: Ford auto unit burns through $6.3 billion and cuts 2,600 hourly workers.
US STAT:Jobs lost in 2008: 1.2 million
Payrolls shrink by 240,000 in October, 10th straight month of cuts. Unemployment soars to 6.5%

Comment: GM is not looking to merger anymore but rather ONLY to stay afloat. If these company go BANKRUPT we are going into a DEPRESSION the next day. The number of companies associated with GM/FORD are mind boggling! They will all go bankrupt and close. ARE YOU READY?

Pawn shops BOOMING with the Coming DEPRESSION

In hard times, consumers turn to pawn shops for quick cash

Republican & Herald - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) --
James Oldham walked into a neon-lit pawn shop on Centre Street, slapped a stack of DVDs up on the counter and in less than three minutes walked right back out, his pockets $80 thicker.
It wasn't any magic trick. Oldham had transformed nine movies and games into gas money, rent money and money to feed his son as part of an ages-old business that has historically thrived during dismal economic seasons.
"The other day I went in with a poker set I had, unopened," Oldham said. "They gave me five bucks for it. Yeah, in better days I would have gladly used it to play cards with my buddies. But nowadays, people need things directly related to their well-being."

Things like winter coats and heating oil, Oldham said. Buy-and-sell shops like Pottsville's Cash & Trading, Buy Me Again and Arizona Video are helping people cope with their expenses by snapping up the stuff that isn't entirely essential. After all, Oldham said, "They know times will get better eventually."

Times are better in the here-and-now for shopkeepers like Walt MacCorkle, owner of Cash & Trading. Since the economy began to plummet more than a month ago, MacCorkle said, his volume of business has risen by nearly a third.

"It's been crazy," he said Wednesday as customers perused his wares. "My daily number of items bought has doubled."
People come to MacCorkle with high definition televisions practically still in the box. They come to him with guitars, iPods and diamond-encrusted wedding rings, just to name a few. They come to him with their stories, too, MacCorkle said -- especially those pawning off rings.
"Sometimes I feel like a barber or a bartender," he said.
It may seem sad or strange to some to swap the sentimental for the fundamental, but MacCorkle said most of his customers are just trying to get by.

"They tell me they need to pay their bills, get food on the table and gas in their tank," he said. At Buy Me Again on Market Street, Pottsville, people have been trading and selling gold jewelry, according to manager Rob Bowers.
"We're picking up much more business with the economy," Bowers said. "No one can afford new anymore, and people need gas and oil now with the winter coming."

The weak economy has also lifted business at Arizona Video, its owner said.
"I don't like looking at it that way, saying I do benefit from people's troubles," said Arizona Video owner Ken Lucas. "But I do."

Top 10 JOBS for the COMING GREAT DEPRESSION

1. Bankruptcy Attorney/Trustee/Advisor-Financial crisis advice for the bankrupt investor/home owner and average worker (with credit left)
2. Pawn Shop Attendee-Grab valuable items and give them little cash for their efforts
3. Government Worker-Make useless cash bring it home and burn it to keep warm
4. Tent Salesman- Sell tents for the upcoming tent cities that will be springing up everywhere
5. Bodyguard-Start working out so you can get paid to protect your neighbors from vagabonds
7. Garbage Collector-Work for the city AND find junk to put in your pawn shop-get paid twice!
8.Common Thief-Steal food to feed your family, thank you government for creating this job
9.Security Guard-Probably the most secure job since everything will be stolen everywhere
10.President-Become the highest paid thief in the country, then run to your farm in Paraguay when it gets too hot to handle

New York Wall Street 2009

What will New York look like a year from now? The answer: bad and probably worse, and perhaps downright catastrophic. Three degrees of awful. The first step was passing the bank-bailout legislation. Now that it’s done—and if it didn’t get done we would have been looking at a guaranteed economic collapse—the critical issue will be presidential leadership. And while any president will be an improvement over the current one, there is a growing belief on Wall Street that Barack Obama has the capacity to lead us out of this wilderness while John McCain does not. I’ll go a step further: Obama is a recession. McCain is a depression. Although in my opinion, I think neither one will stop a freight train of financial destruction. The Dow below 7200? Perhaps. Your 401k, 50% off, your home 50% lower? Many of those without a nest egg will find themselves in foreclosure, personal bankruptcy, or other dire financial straits. Here is some morbid advice: Purchase a life insurance policy on a relative 65 years or younger. Make yourself the beneficiary. Make the payments. Cash out tax free when the inevitable happens. WAY Better than your 401k will ever be!

Depression JOBS

Here are a list of jobs one can do when the DEPRESSION HITS:

1. Locksmith: A profession that’s experiencing true growth, no joke this time. If you’d enjoy changing locks on foreclosed homes, a locksmith career might open some doors.

2. Bartender: Everyone drinks their sorrows away during a depression. Take the Bartending course (2 weeks)

3. Silver Collector: Collect silver coins. Check your local coffee shop tills for pre 1967 dimes or quarters (Canadian)pre 1966 coins (US). Take them to your local coin shops. They are worth 10 times face value!

4. Repo Man: Everyone loses their vehicles, boats and other large items from the bank.

5. Blogger: Set up a blog with advertising and collect money on the ads!

6. Credit Collector: Also known as bill and account collectors, try to convince debtors—people who owe money—to pay their overdue bills. Get paid doing it.