joi Posted February 25, 2013 Group: Royal Member Followers: 1 Topic Count: 506 Topics Per Day: 0.11 Content Count: 1,922 Content Per Day: 0.41 Reputation: 173 Days Won: 4 Joined: 06/12/2011 Status: Offline Share Posted February 25, 2013 I recently went shopping for a set of bed sheets and was surprised at how scarce they were in my old favorite haunts. I went to Tuesday Morning, Ross and TJ Maxx and all they had were very basic sheet sets and not many of them at that. I noticed that there were microfiber sheet sets at these stores. Not sure I want those. I need to research them to see what that fiber consists of. I like microfiber cleaning cloths and floor mops, but not sure about sheets. This is only one item that I have really noticed that has fallen behind, compared to what once was there, and I think there are probably a lot more if I just paid attention. If things continue as they are now, we are going to find out just how much we were overindulgent and pampered in the past. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rjp34652 Posted February 26, 2013 Group: Advanced Member Followers: 1 Topic Count: 17 Topics Per Day: 0.00 Content Count: 448 Content Per Day: 0.10 Reputation: 156 Days Won: 0 Joined: 05/19/2012 Status: Offline Share Posted February 26, 2013 (edited) I recently went shopping for a set of bed sheets and was surprised at how scarce they were in my old favorite haunts. I went to Tuesday Morning, Ross and TJ Maxx and all they had were very basic sheet sets and not many of them at that. I noticed that there were microfiber sheet sets at these stores. Not sure I want those. I need to research them to see what that fiber consists of. I like microfiber cleaning cloths and floor mops, but not sure about sheets. This is only one item that I have really noticed that has fallen behind, compared to what once was there, and I think there are probably a lot more if I just paid attention. If things continue as they are now, we are going to find out just how much we were overindulgent and pampered in the past. I really don't think that buying bedsheets is over indulging. You sort of need sheets. Are there fewer beds? Yet it is an example of a wider situation. You've touched on something there I think. Tires. You need tires for your car. Perhaps owning a car is overindulgent. Perhaps not. Either way the number of cars hasn't decreased significantly have they? Can't buy tires like you used to. They have to be ordered. New ones that is. I've noticed a growing business in used tires these days. Have you? hmmm How about jewelry? Gold jewelry. Now there is a little indulgence if ever you labeled it, yet there is little or no GOLD jewelry to be found anywhere. I'm talking about 10k or 14k gold, not gold filled (gold pressed over a base element like silver). There hasn't been any for over a year now. I checked first at my local Walmart, then Penny's and finally at a moderately priced jewelry store then a high priced jewelry store. No gold. Oh yes, I was told over and over that I could pick what I wanted out of a catalog and order it, but they just didn't stock the stuff. They gave me several reasons, none of which were satisfying. The odd thing is that the bullion price of gold has changed very little in the past year. I know. I buy the stuff. I watch the market. No significant change. So where is the gold? How is gold the same as bed sheets or tires? The story is the same everywhere and the story I'm hearing is that it's too expensive for retailers to stock stuff. Well, if retailers aren't going to stock inventory then it seems logical to assume that folks aren't going to buy whatever it is they aren't selling. So the stores close. But is it really too expensive to stock inventory or is this a retail reaction to something else? Taxes perhaps. Healthcare taxes. City taxes. Federal taxes. Are retailers being taxed out of existence or is this a symptom of something else? After all when was the last time a retail clerk was informed about anything except how to operate the cash register? My guess is they don't know either, so the explanation that its too expensive to stock inventory can't be true. They're not lying, they just don't know I think. Do you? Does anyone here? What's going on? And at what point are there going to be shortages of other things? Things like food? Gas? How about a water shortage? Some kind of power glitch hit Tampa last weekend and the public water filtration system went down. The official explanation was that a squirrel chewed through some insulation somewhere and the resultant zap killed power for the whole weekend. A squirrel? Really? It takes all weekend to fix a wire? For whatever reason it did take all weekend. No potable water for three days. Nice. And of course you all know there is a shortage of ammunition. All kinds, all types. Gone. We do know where some of it's going. Grandma is buying a lot of it. Grandpa too. Are they really that scared or are they buying it for another reason? The gun ranges are supposed to be buying a lot, but folks who like to buy a box or two and go shooting for an hour aren't doing it any more because they fear they won't be able to replace what they've got when they shoot it up. A local gun range has already gone out of business because nobody went there any more. But to listen to the evening news you'd think everybody in America is packing heat and getting ready for a civil war. But they aren't. The NRA is actually complaining that people aren't carrying iron around. It seems to me that people are hoarding ammunition and buying guns for some reason other than to shoot up the neighbors. They're buying it for investment because when the money is gone and the gold is gone ammo and guns can be exchanged for other things. Like sheets, and food and other stuff..... America is becoming a third world country. What's going on folks? it's just me, hollering from the choir loft... Edited February 26, 2013 by rjp34652 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Burning_Ember Posted February 26, 2013 Group: Diamond Member Followers: 0 Topic Count: 21 Topics Per Day: 0.00 Content Count: 2,009 Content Per Day: 0.30 Reputation: 100 Days Won: 3 Joined: 09/20/2005 Status: Offline Share Posted February 26, 2013 Massive post The reality of these situations isn't so one-dimensional in cause and effect so that you can just blame Obama/his Administration. Obama doesn't just have a magic box on his desk that he feeds a paper with a problem into and flips a switch towards "mess this up" or "make it awesome". Any one of those subjects is a multi-faceted issue. But Bush had one, right? When is Obama going to finally be culpable for the harm he has caused and the bad leadership he has displayed? Or from the Liberal point of view, does he get a free pass forever? The double standards from the Liberal side are ever-expanding. No, Bush didn't. Liberals tend to frown upon the right as a cause of the economic decline because those are the facts. For example, the bailout and the housing collapse. If Glass-Steagall (If I recall correctly, it's 2AM over here, I'm fading a bit) hadn't been repealed, investment banking would not have been allowed. Mortgage backed securities and certain obscure financial markets would not have poisoned the entire market. Stricter regulations probably would have helped them not sell things they knew were garbage to their clients, presenting it as a profitable opportunity. If there were stricter regulations for the leverage ratios banks are supposed to have, then American banks would be able to weather a financial crisis much easier. If there wasn't artificially low interest rates for a very long period of time, then that would've been a big help in not creating the housing bubble in the first place. Because of these differences in policies, Canada weathered the financial collapse south of the border fairly well. America didn't. My province in particular doesn't really understand what the word "recession" has meant since the the early nineties, it's been more along the lines of "darn, it might take me up to three whole months to find a well paying job in my field." Our bubbles will come up in 5-10 years or so, but It's just a matter of getting ahead before that happens. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tinky Posted February 26, 2013 Group: Diamond Member Followers: 1 Topic Count: 200 Topics Per Day: 0.04 Content Count: 1,602 Content Per Day: 0.30 Reputation: 291 Days Won: 8 Joined: 10/24/2009 Status: Offline Birthday: 01/01/1986 Author Share Posted February 26, 2013 So what in the world is going on here? Simple. The planned, total implosion of the American economy. And when everything is in ashes, the socialists already have a plan--and a man--to swoop in and "save the day." The only problem is, Obama and his charming henchmen don't have the chops to fix what's about to happen. The rot goes too far and too deep. I agree. It has Agenda 21 written all over it. I don't understand your reference to Agenda 21. I do understand that the 'Agenda' is a United Nations action plan and that the '21' refers to the twenty first century. I do understand that the UN plan is supposed to be voluntary... At the apex of United States policy is supposed to reside the consideration for American self-interest. I yield the fact that our leadership is not operating and has not operated for quite some time in favor of what is good for America. What's the connection then? One of the goals of Agenda 21 is communitarianism/sustainable development. A controlling of the world economy for the "benefit" of all. The only way they can do that is to collapse the economy - and thus rebuild it upon a foundation of socialism. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nebula Posted February 26, 2013 Group: Royal Member Followers: 10 Topic Count: 5,823 Topics Per Day: 0.76 Content Count: 45,870 Content Per Day: 5.95 Reputation: 1,897 Days Won: 83 Joined: 03/22/2003 Status: Offline Birthday: 11/19/1970 Share Posted February 26, 2013 For example, the bailout and the housing collapse. When the GOP tried to reign in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to ward off the inevitable collapse, Obama as a lawyer fought against those measures. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matthitjah Posted February 26, 2013 Group: Royal Member Followers: 4 Topic Count: 1,285 Topics Per Day: 0.16 Content Count: 17,917 Content Per Day: 2.27 Reputation: 355 Days Won: 19 Joined: 10/01/2002 Status: Offline Share Posted February 26, 2013 Tires. You need tires for your car. Perhaps owning a car is overindulgent. Perhaps not. Either way the number of cars hasn't decreased significantly have they? Can't buy tires like you used to. They have to be ordered. New ones that is. I've noticed a growing business in used tires these days. Have you? hmmm How about jewelry? Gold jewelry. Now there is a little indulgence if ever you labeled it, yet there is little or no GOLD jewelry to be found anywhere. I'm talking about 10k or 14k gold, not gold filled (gold pressed over a base element like silver). There hasn't been any for over a year now. I checked first at my local Walmart, then Penny's and finally at a moderately priced jewelry store then a high priced jewelry store. No gold. Oh yes, I was told over and over that I could pick what I wanted out of a catalog and order it, but they just didn't stock the stuff. They gave me several reasons, none of which were satisfying. The odd thing is that the bullion price of gold has changed very little in the past year. I know. I buy the stuff. I watch the market. No significant change. So where is the gold? Gold has significantly increased in price astronomically because of the Global economy the last several years. That may be why you are seeing a Gold shortage. As for the shortage of tires in stock and other retail items. Have you heard of the WalMart model of retail business? They only have on hand what they can sell for that weeks inventory and often it is three days rather than a week. Less stock on hand means less stock riding on an inventory. Less stock on an inventory means less money that is just sitting somewhere not being turned over for a profit. It's become a common practice every where. Retail food now does that and it is forboding because if there is a crisis the local grocery store will be wiped out in one day as people make a run on the store. They only have 3 days of given stock at any moment. The next supply doesn't arrive until the next truck arrives. Should there be a huge National catastrophe, and we've seen them recently, transportation shuts down. Retail fuel is the same way. Last year there was a huge storm/tornado that hit the county south of here. They lost power for over a week in some areas. The fuel pumps stopped working and the stations that had generators were sold out of gas rather quickly, within hours. The next day I went out near my home and saw huge gas lines. I was stunned. Folks had driven over a half an hour to my County to get gas for their generators and cars. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matthitjah Posted February 26, 2013 Group: Royal Member Followers: 4 Topic Count: 1,285 Topics Per Day: 0.16 Content Count: 17,917 Content Per Day: 2.27 Reputation: 355 Days Won: 19 Joined: 10/01/2002 Status: Offline Share Posted February 26, 2013 If Glass-Steagall (If I recall correctly, it's 2AM over here, I'm fading a bit) hadn't been repealed, investment banking would not have been allowed. Mortgage backed securities and certain obscure financial markets would not have poisoned the entire market. Stricter regulations probably would have helped them not sell things they knew were garbage to their clients, presenting it as a profitable opportunity. Ridiculous! It was President Clinton who actually declared Glass Steagal dead. Glass Steagal was already circumvented by the Federal Reserve and most Banks by the time it was repealed. The fact is that under Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter before him the Community Reinvestment Act or CRA was used to pressure Mortgage Bankers to make loans to people who could not afford them and had not the income to even qualify. You can thank fine Lefty's like Chris Dood, Barney Franks, and Ted Kennedy for that. Socialism fails every time it's tried. Of course unscrupulous Mortgage Brokers repackaged them and made money hand over fist, but what choice did they have. The Government forced the issue all in the name of Social Justice. It was Bill Clintons Justice Department that threatened banks with lawsuit for not making laons, remember Janet Reno? The Mortgage Bankers shouldn't have done it, but had to unload these sorry excuses for loans over and over again to try to get them off the books or even to hide them. Yes, some of them just wanted to make money. However, the Leftist's created the environment for it. These loans finally unraveled. It caused huge pain in Euorpe too as these packages were sold over there. Whatever happend to "Let the buyer beware?" I had a mortgage banker offer me a loan like that on my house at the time. Nothing down, low to no interest with a ballon for 10 years. I laughed at him and asked what would happen when the note came due. he said, "Refinance it." I asked him what would happen if there was an economic downturn and the home lost it's value. He said, "Won't happen, this market will last forever." Know why he said that? Irrational Exuberance created by a lack of Education. I took a stable 10% down loan avoiding the Homeowners Insurance (through the Federal Government which avoided them having any interest in my home) that had a fixed rate for 30 years. Here's an article for ya, not that you'll read it; http://articles.busi...-mortgage-rates Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joi Posted February 26, 2013 Group: Royal Member Followers: 1 Topic Count: 506 Topics Per Day: 0.11 Content Count: 1,922 Content Per Day: 0.41 Reputation: 173 Days Won: 4 Joined: 06/12/2011 Status: Offline Share Posted February 26, 2013 I really don't think that buying bedsheets is over indulging. You sort of need sheets. Are there fewer beds? Yet it is an example of a wider situation. You've touched on something there I think. rjp, you are correct, bed sheets are not over indulging. However my point was not the indulgence involved, it was the fact that I had grown accustomed to having a much wider selection. On the marlet today all I had to choose from was plain old vanilla, so to speak. You fleshed out some other areas of shortage and I had hoped someone would do that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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