LA Times explains the economy.

[ColbertWatcher]

This is an article about how one man loses his jobs and how it effects other people's jobs.

From the Los Angeles Times
COLUMN ONE
One layoff leads to another
A video game company lets go a writer, who then lays off his nanny, who stops visiting his barber, who can no longer afford the waitress' meals.
By Alana Semuels
March 9, 2009

When customers sit beneath an intricate gold mural, order kung pao chicken and confide that they've just lost their jobs, waitress Alice Lau understands their hurt and fear. She's feeling the pinch too, as the repercussions of decisions made by others trickle down to her.

Her hours at the Great Wall Chinese restaurant have been cut because regulars such as Rogelio Valdez can no longer afford dinners out. Some customers come in for one last meal to tell her they've been laid off, then disappear.

Valdez, a barber, said business at his shop was down. He no longer sees customers such as Dave Vasquez, who shaved his head to avoid spending money on haircuts.

Vasquez had worked as a nanny for Bill Maxwell. But when Maxwell lost his job with a Pasadena video game company, he was forced to let Vasquez go. The start-up had no money to pay its workers after a major publisher, spooked by signs that the country's economic troubles were worsening, canceled a contract in August.

As the recession deepens across the country, touching millions of individuals, it links people through countless cutbacks and layoffs. One job loss leads to another, much the way a wobbly domino can topple the whole row.

Minor financial decisions -- a penny pinched here, a dollar saved there -- build, rippling through a chain of strangers.

(much, much more)

--Los Angeles Times

Here (http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-layoff9-2009march09-chain-pg,0,4205998.photogallery ) is the story in pictures to help the freepers understand.

[SoCalDem]

1. How sad that people "need" it explained so "simply"..n/t

[ColbertWatcher]

2. The failure of this economy under GOP "reforms" has been obvious to me for years.

However, the GOP followers can't see it no matter how obvious it is for anyone else.

[Fumesucker]

4. If they don't see it now they will as soon as they can "reasonably" blame

it on Obama..

Which started about two nanoseconds after he was elected, or maybe nominated.

[ColbertWatcher]

6. Typical GOP-herdthink: blame everyone else but they're heroes: Reagan and Ayn Rand. n/t

[ProfessorGAC]

19. You're Right, But You're Wrong

They started blaming it on Obama the 2 nanoseconds after, like you said, but they were blaming it on any and all dems two or three years ago, even when they were completely in charge.
GAC

[zbdent]

24. they see it ... it's just not in their nature to admit it ...

and they feel that Rush will destroy them if they don't toe the line ...

[elias7]

25. Off topic...your sig pic...is Bobby Jindal the Indian equivalent of Erkel?

[SoCalDem]

26. Bobby Jindal is the Bobby Jindal version of Urkel

nerdy is nerdy is nerdy :)

[islandmkl]

3. yeah, well...other than those examples...

everything is going just fine...according to some...

'you're either the shit or the fan...'

either way, you are in a mess...

[ColbertWatcher]

5. I can totally see freepers saying that story illustrates only isolated incidents.

Which aren't happening all across the country, so they can safely believe they'll be protected from Obama's socialism and any other threat from the scary liberal agenda.

[islandmkl]

7. i have some friends, freepers though they don't realize it...

who were saying last fall, "We thought the economy was supposed to be bad...look at all the full football stadiums."

at the same time, their 401k's and investments and property values were headed south...

at which time, they adopted the 'blame the people who got mortgages who KNEW they could never afford them' meme...

to this day, they will not blame the shysters who ripped THEM off...

[ColbertWatcher]

8. How do you thin k they'd respond to the article in the OP?

I'd love to hear how their cognitive dissonance reacts to the step-by-step explanation in the article.

[islandmkl]

11. there can be no cognitive dissonance where there is a huge amount of denial...

which, to my amazement, seems to be plentiful for some...

the last 8 years were great TILL NOW...

go figure...

[ColbertWatcher]

14. "the last 8 years were great TILL NOW" Frightening thought.

I wonder what a poll of freepers would look like if they were asked the question:

Are you better off now than you were the last 8 years?

[islandmkl]

15. you know, they would say they were better off the last 8 years...

because Bill Clinton wasn't President anymore...

after all, he started anything bad that has happened since 1992...you know the routine...

[FreakinDJ]

9. The LayOffs snow balled like that in 1981 too

it was scary then too

From experience watching these things come and go - I can say Obama has got us on the right path

[ColbertWatcher]

13. "Obama has got us on the right path" I agree, but ...

... obviously the freepers disagree.

I'm wondering if they disagree as a matter of habit or because they don't understand how everyone's employment is interdependent?

[FreakinDJ]

16. They're trying to derail the recovery to win seats in 2010

they don't care how much it hurts the country - they just want back in power

[ColbertWatcher]

27. "they just want back in power" True, for the GOP it's all about power. n/t

[Pale Blue Dot]

18. We didn't have the massive personal, corporate, and governmental debt in 1981

that we have now. It's not even close.

Comparing 1981 and now is comparing apples to oranges.

[FreakinDJ]

21. No we didn't have the Debt - we had double digit Inflation

Apples and Oranges - agreed

But we had a housing bubble in 76 - 77 that had still lingering effects
We had double digit inflation leading right up to massive layoffs
And we had the huge debt of the Vietnam War

What is REALLY different this time is "The US Financial Institutions are Suspect to Foreign Investors"

Asian and Saudi investors were burned in the Enron / Worldcom fiasco. They were realing from that and unsure about placing all the "Trade Imbalance Money" in US financial products. Basically they pulled a large portion of their stock holdings out.

But the USA has these STAGGERING Trade Deficits and foreigners need to place that money some where. Other wise the money they are holding becomes WORTHLESS

So Wall St. cooked up The New and Improved Financial Products - "Mortgage Backed Securities"

Bush knew it. Thats why he was pimping the "Ownership Society" We needed foreigners to buy some thing with all that US cash they got laying around. So Wall St. sold them our debt. There were truck loads of money laying around foreign countries so they lowered interest rates to cause a housing bubble / mortgage bubble - "It was Unsustainable" They knew it had to fall sooner or later - So they cooked up "Credit Default Swaps"

The REAL CULPRITS are Outsourcing, Energy Dependance, and Manufacturing Declines

[ColbertWatcher]

28. Do you remember details from 1981?

If so, I would love to see your argument on how 1981 is different from now as its own thread.

I would love to read it and will kick and rec it up.

[lapfog_1]

10. In the race for the bottom...

everyone is always surprised at the mash up when they hit it.

[islandmkl]

12. the guy jumps off the top of the skyscraper..

as he goes past each floor, people looking out their windows ask "How is it going?"

His reply: "So far, so good..."

[ProfessorGAC]

20. The Fall Isn't The Problem

It's that stop at the end.
GAC

[liberal N proud]

17. It is like water running down the drain...

The swirling whirlpool just sucks everything in.

[rucky]

22. How come "trickle-down" theory seems to work in bad times

but not in good?

[FreakinDJ]

23. Trickle Down Theory doesn't work any of the times

Even Greenspan admitted that in front fo the US Senate

[ColbertWatcher]

29. Good question. I hope someone can figure out the answer. n/t