In the news....Are we running out of people to unemploy?

Weekly new unemployment drops again, looks as though 4 week rolling average of unemployment claims may have peaked, which often signals the end of the recession.

 

However, continued claims are still at a record high and the possibility of another "jobless recovery" is definitely out there.  We could definitely see a Japan-like scenario for the next five years where interest rates stay crazy low and housing doesn't appreciate at all. 

 

For those of us in the PNW the news is even a little worse. We were about 12-18 months behind the rest of the nation as most drank the "Can't happen here" kool-aid. Often in these cases an area does a bit of jogging to try to catch up, but never quite makes it. So I am going to put my amateur economic forecaster hat on here and make a few predictions.

 

1) 4 week unemployment average peaked 1-2 weeks ago. We will go ahead and say the nation is beginning it's recovery now. If we "jog to catch up" we likely are still 8-12 months behind the nation. which means

 

2) PNW recovery will begin early 2010 somewhere between December 2009 and March 2010.

 

Feel free to make your own prediction below, it will probably be every bit as accurate as half the economists' predictions out there.

 

 

Mapping the Seven Deadly Sins

Not looking so good for the West coast.

 

http://www.mcwetboy.net/maproom/2009/04/mapping_the_sev.php

Well, there's three ways to reduce housing inventory...

1 - Stop building or at least slow down home building

2 - Cut prices or even give away houses

3 - Bulldoze those bitches!

 

I guess they chose 3.

 

Book Review: Watchmen

As a new feature to the Chino and friends world, I decided that I would start reviewing books that I have read. This should serve at least 2 purposes, if not more. 

First, it will be a way for me to keep track of books that I have read and liked.  A lot of the time I trade/sell/give away books that I have read and when I think back to remember what books I've read over the past 6 months, it can be difficult to recall every book. 

Second, maybe I can somehow inform someone on whether or not to buy a certain book. But, take my reviews with a grain of salt, as I have somehow turned into an optimist at some point while drinking my way through my undergraduate education. I just avoid most books I know that I will hate, or else I never finish them. Maybe I will find a book to write a hateful review on though, just for the sake of balance.

Anyhow. On to the review. I read most of this graphic novel on a plane, which I think was kind of weird because certain illustrations are, well, a touch graphic (and not in a novel sense). I kept feeling guilty that a child behind me would be trying to read the "comic book" over my shoulder. This never actually happened though and mostly just proved that I am getting old.  

I can see how this gets a rep as being the best graphic novel of all time, it would be hard to give the same reading experience with a plain text novel, it just wouldn't match up. The characters are very well developed, though some never really flesh out until the very end. The heroes are very much fallible characters with personality flaws beyond that of the X-men. 

There isn't really a lot else I can say without given away some key plot points of the book, but suffice it to say that it's worth picking up for the right price. I found a copy at Costco for $11, but apparently retail on this sucker is $20. I have a hard time justifying anything for $20 so either hit up amazon or your local library once all the movie fervor dies down a bit. It's an easy read and one of the more unique reading experiences you will ever have. 

The only downside to this novel is that it just sort of ends and felt rather unfulfilled, like eating junk food I suppose. No real feelings one way or another, more just impressed at the novelty of the whole thing. 

Final Rating: 8/10

Emotional Mapping (not quite what you'd think)

http://www.sf.biomapping.net/

 

So this fellow made a device that measured your level of emotional "arousal" (not too sure on the specifics) but he then invited people to take walks with the device attached to their finger. The device collected locational and "emotional" data, which they then mapped. Participants annotated parts of their walks with notes, which are then overlaid on the maps as text. 

 

Interesting stuff, lots of reactions to views of the city and houses, which I think is interesting.

As if you needed another reason to dislike California

This is from the LA Times  in 1886 (no joke, 1886)

 

"We Californians have learned something. And that is that home prices can't just go up forever—they have to be supported by something. Never again will Californians make this mistake."

 

If you are feeling particularly pessimistic...

Then I have a particularly good website for you to check out. No, it won't cheer you up, but it will join you in your pessimism.  After the Crash is a blog devoted to envisioning a future after "TSHTF" otherwise known as "The shit hits the fan". There you can find theoretical future fiction of a post apocalyptic McMansion wasteland as well as tales of people eating their neighbor's dogs.  Because different people post on the blog sometimes it is pretty disorganized so you have to devote a little attention to figuring out who is posting what and if/how it is all connected. Still, worth a read, especially if you like speculative future sci-fi.

 

Oh, and also 1 bank and 1 credit union have failed so far today. Boo-ya banking system!