economy moving forward?

There are some signs that show the economy is improving and moving forward. Last Friday might have been evidence that this spend, spend, spend culture is doing well, and all is fine. But wasn't that kind of what started the whole mess? Racking up debt that we (as individuals, as a nation, and a global community) could not easily repay and brought countless financial institutions to their knees and looking for a handout. Unless everyone that buys stuff nowadays does not use credit as a means of payment, and if so, they are entirely responsible enough to make payments in a timely manner. (in an ideal world, yes)

Well one fine example of an institution reaching for a life preserver was AIG, but is now showing promising signs - "AIG raises $2bil. in 1st bond sale since '08...bailout'
Source link: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-11-30/aig-sells-2-billion-of-debt-in-insurer-s-first-offering-since-u-s-rescue.html
Perhaps people are getting antsy to put their cash somewhere with higher returns than we have seen from t-bills, or maybe it's the 'too-big-to-fail' mentality that we've encountered in the past year or so that makes people have faith in institutions with a 'brand name.' Their bond ratings are pretty high, as this article states.

In late 2008, when many banks were crashing around us, and people were losing confidence in their banks, those who still had income were looking for a safe place to put their paychecks, other than holding it as cash. Well I wasn't too worried about every bank going to hell, and bank runs are so 1929 haha, well it was more like I had no money to worry about anyway. At that time, it seemed like though the rates sucked, people were putting more faith in Treasury bonds than their own so-called 'free' checking accounts. What showed a minor bit of desperation was when Wachovia printed out thank you notes if you made a deposit, or at least that's what I heard.

Most people in the Eastern hemisphere, well and the West....ok, most people on the planet would say that the financial turmoil within the U.S. spurred the global financial crisis. U.S. bonds were like party favors, an obvious sign of trouble. and nobody is ever going to say that these were issued without any intent of repayment. It's one of those things that are never going to be clear-cut, but it's somewhat very, very likely to be true. I still don't think all the blame can be put on one country. What did everyone else, *ahem China cough* expect from these party favor bonds? Pretty suspicious that these bonds would definitely have issues with repayment, but it's not like these other countries were trying to be good Samaritans, lending a helping hand. Gee, could it because of changing exchange rates - a rising RMB, they were seeking an opportunity to tip the trade deficit back in their favor? Be a lender to the U.S., keep up the value of the USD, and in effect, keeping their exports relatively cheap. Be a major lender to the U.S., seek opportunity to control U.S. fiscal policy? That's just my way of saying everybody's at fault, we all contributed to the mess. But what the hell do I know? Honestly, I know jack squat and that's the painful truth.

Besides, unemployment rates are still high, last I checked. Truthfully, it's not that often, because it's depressing and I'd rather just have that little factoid in the back of my mind, sort of in a remote kind of way. Like how the U.S. kept the idea of World War II in a remote state of mind, because the majority of people didn't really want to get involved, until Japan sucked the U.S. in with some Pearl Harbor action.

For those who are employed, the gender wage gap may converge due to the Paycheck Fairness Act. Now I honestly don't really know what that is, except that it was not passed by Senate in Q4 2010?! To me, this screams regression. Is it or is not the goal of the free country to fight for equal rights?

http://www.pay-equity.org/
Aside from women getting screwed over, that's old news. Yes it is unfair to get paid less for doing the same job with the same experience, et cetera et cetera. Life isn't fair and it never has been, but the point is, we hope for improvement, because without hope, we'd all give up and complain to no end. (Wait, most of us do just sit on our asses and complain.)

Now, in a different sense, I think it's really difficult to put together a compensation package for any one person, even if you know the standard salary for a certain position. You have to look at a person's background, experience, competence level, and it all ties into commitment level. How long do you think this employee will stay at the job? That affects how much the raise will be. all my opinions, I don't really know what a business mgr or hr mgr really thinks of. They probably go by the book, and go off a checklist. It's so corporate to fit everything in a neat, tidy box.

How can someone managing a large team, in a busy city, demand heavily trafficky, et cetera, get the same compensation as someone whose work is not as high in demand, in a quieter town, and probably lives life in a lower stress environment? i.e. store mgr. in L.A. versus store mgr. in I don't know somewhere that's not a big cityish hub.

Since I can't seem to stay on one topic. Because it's all related, one way or another, everything is all connected. One topic brings me to another.

Cheap Chinese Labor - we love it. Some may complain, but come on? Where would we be without it? I think I'd end up naked. No just kidding, well I hope not, but surely my wardrobe would be a fraction of what it is now.

Is it just me or is apparel getting cheaper? Take for example, disposable fashion retailers. Forever21, say what you want about it, I'm sure something you own is from there. Most of their inventory is dirt cheap and that's what we love about it. I think it's even gotten cheaper. I remember when tank tops were 2 for $9. Now they're like $2.50 each or something like that. My recent purchases from there have a lot of Asian writing on the tags, like how to care for this item, and yadda yadda. That might not mean anything. Still, they have obviously expanded. Forever21 shops are everywhere, and they are now global, even in Asia. I know their products were originally mostly made in China, but since it's gotten even cheapER, I was wondering if maybe Forever21 has started picking up suppliers in Asia, which might be the cause of their cheapening inventory. Just a thought...

And....
my gosh I've had my eyes on these Yves Saint Laurent Tribute sandals for a couple years now. I know a while back, there were copies of these everywhere including, Steve Madden, debshops.com, et cetera et cetera. In fact, I think Steve Madden has one right now...

http://www.stevemadden.com/Item.aspx?id=51442&np=127_282-428_390
It's not an excellent copy. The ankle strap doesn't start with a twist. The platform in the front has a different shape. It just seems to have a different vibe, whereas the original is gorgeous in comparison.

Now I know I have enough shoes and I definitely do not need these sandals, but it's fun to have shoe eye candy and the knockoffs are fun to look for.

Copies may be harmful to the original designer who put all that work into creating a beautiful piece of art. It's just not fair that some other manufacturer is cranking them out at a fraction of the cost and taking larger fraction of the market share. But who's the real victim when the retail price is around $600?

Tomorrow is Friday. oh thank goodness.