As can be expected, anytime the economy is reaching the depths that this economy is fast approaching, there will be an increase in crime. People who would not normally even think about stealing things are going to become desperate for their necessities, simply because they have lost their jobs and can’t find another one. Many companies have been downsizing, and many companies that hire seasonal employees have decided against hiring seasonal employees this year. So money is very tight, and likely to get tighter.

I was reading on the Forbes.com news website that the “hottest” job trends are in the “green” market.  The article indicates that Washington DC, Boston MA, Houston TX, San Fransisco, San Diego and Las Angelas are all going to be huge markets for “green” industries.

I sure hope that’s true.  We could use some job growth around here!  Lately it seems to have been all “doom and gloom” news about the economy and people losing jobs.  We sure need more jobs, and better jobs right here in the area!

I’ve been hearing on CNN that there has been some controversy in Michigan about a high ranked Republican official who was mis-quoted as saying that he was going to try to prevent people who lost their homes to foreclosure from voting. That has caused quite an uproar, as you can imagine! When I heard the news at first I missed part of the story, so I wasn’t sure where this was happening. But today I heard more of the story and apparently it was in Michigan. After all of the brouhaha had settled down, the gist of the story is that if someone has lost their home to foreclosure and no longer lives in the same precinct as he did when he registered, then he can’t vote. But that really has nothing to do with foreclosure, it has to do with voting in the precinct in which you actually live!

So this is one story that may have been blown out of proportion (imagine that!)

I’ve been watching with quite a bit of concern the attempts to fix the financial mess our country is finding itself in.  I was not happy with the bail out bill package, but I felt that it needed to be passed to keep our economy from collapsing completely.  So I was very discouraged to hear that it had not passed.  This scares me; I’m concerned that people are going to be losing their jobs and their homes.  I hope that they come up with a workable solution to fix this mess!

I understand that the DOW fell 340 points yesterday, largely due to the news of rising unemployment and loss of retail sales.  I don’t usually pay a lot of attention to the stock market – I bought some stock a long time ago and just put it away, hoping to maybe make a little bit of money on it “in the long run.”  I’ve always been told to buy stock when the market is down, so this would be a good time to buy – if I had money to invest!

But money is too tight right now to put anything into investments, it is hard just paying the bills.  The economy of the US is in trouble though, and I think it is going to get worse before it gets better.